Mass Effect New Origins
by erttheking
Summary: Scrapped, rewrite being planned
1. Discovery

Chapter 1

Discovery

I have decided to write a Halo/Mass Effect crossover alongside my Halo/Star Wars crossover, don't worry I'll release updates for both stories simultaneously, I'm not going to abandon Fighting for a Purpose, I spent months working on that.

March 3, 2553 The Human Covenant war is declared over, and the UNSC begins to rebuild, although the Great Schism rages on.

March 8, 2553 UNSC finish contact with military bases around Earth and the surviving Inner colonies, revealing that the casualties from the war were not as high as once thought, although still staggering. Billions died in the war, but it was confirmed that the majority of the Inner Colonies were not glassed, and many left completely untouched, as apparently they were "skipped" as they Covenant found Earth before them. 168 planets are confirmed to have survived the war and Humans populations stands at 117 billion, where it was once 275 billion before the war.

January 17, 2558 Covenant Separatists bring an end to the Great Schism, due to so many Loyalist planets being glassed that they were unable to continue the war. The San 'Shyuum becoming extinct due to the battle of Delta Halo, and the lack of Jiralhanae tactical knowledge contributed to their downfall. Separatist forces formed a blockade between Loyalist and Separatist territories, threatening to shoot any Loyalist that pass it.

January 28, 2558 The Sangheili, Unggoy, Mgalekgolo, and Huragok unite under the Sangeili's leadership forming the Republic of Sovereign Nations commonly referred to as the RSN. The RSN are technically allied with the UNSC, but due to hatred that was spawned by the war, things between them are cold at best, despite the best work of negotiators on both sides, and the RSN contributing resources and new technology towards the UNSC, causing massive technological jumps. Also the Sangheili resume their old roles as technological researchers as well as warriors.

December 12, 2561. The RSN discovers a Forerunner relic, that contained data the disproved the Covenant religion, which was still practiced by the RSN. It would be the first of many discoveries that caused the RSN to slowly drift away from said religion. As a gesture of friendship, the RSN allowed UNSC research teams into the relic site. It is a well know fact that despite tensions, the RSN and the UNSC still run joint research operations. This has resulted in both factions gaining new technologies, for example the UNSC can now develop shields on their soldiers and ships, while the RSN are capable of developing their own smart A.I.s.

November 5, 2571. Eden Prime is colonized, bringing the UNSC's total number of colonized planets up to 200. Eden Prime was colonized to provide agricultural support to other colonies, basically a new Harvest.

August 9, 2584. Terraforming of many glassed colonies, which had been going on non stop since the war's end, begins to show results, scientists hope that in a matter of years they will be habitable again.

October, 30 2592. Reach is completely de-glassed and colonization begins on it again. It will be awhile before it becomes the power house that is was before the Human-Covenant war, but the UNSC are simply glad to have it back. It is worth noting that the UNSC has temporarily halted searching for new colonies, stating that the main reason the Outer Colonies fell so quickly was they were underdeveloped and the UNSC fleet was spread too thinly. The UNSC is now focusing on developing its existing colonies.

January, 1 2600. ({CLASSIFIED}) A freak slipspace accident caused a UNSC ship to drop out into a completely uncharted territory. The crew of the ship ({CLASSIFIED)} reported seeing a large metallic object floating in space. Captain ({CLASSIFIED}) remarked "I have never seen anything like it." An expedition fleet will be sent to the coordinates ({CLASSIFIED}) to analyze the object. The common theory is that it is some sort of Forerunner relic.

January, 11 2600. Present day.

Captain Richard Peterson led out a sigh as he walked towards the bridge of his ship, the _Bright Dawn_, a UNSC destroyer that packed a lot more punch than the destroyers of the Human Covenant War. The MAC guns had been upgraded, and while they weren't as powerful as a super MAC, the two shots that it could fire before having to reload and recharge, which now was much faster, they were more than enough to take down the shields of any ship that the UNSC had encountered, save the largest of the RSN ships. The Archer missiles had been upgraded with plasma warheads, making them much more deadly and capable of eliminating shields and breaching heavy armor. In addition to weapon upgrades, all UNSC ships were now outfitted with shields, improved armor, and point defense lasers, allowing them to take much more punishment before going down.

Peterson and his ship had been assigned to guard three UNSC research ships as they examined some sort of relic in space. 'Problem is,' Peterson thought to himself as he entered the bridge, acquiring a good look at the relic 'It looks nothing like a Forerunner relic.' The relic was difficult to describe, the end was shaped like a sphere, with two giant curved, there was no other word for it, arms extending a great distance. It look dormant, as if it had no power supply. When Peterson had arrived at the relic a week ago, he and everyone else onboard had been very excited at the prospect of being able to see a piece of unknown technology, but now everyone was bored stiff, just wanting this whole forsaken thing to end already.

Peterson put his hand to the Com unit in his ear and said "Peterson to Echo-1 what is your status on the relic?"

"Same status that we had a week ago Captain," came the reply of Echo-1 the head of the research team "You can't rush these kind of things."

"Can you tell me anything about it? Can you tell me how old it is?" asked Peterson, an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Um, no we can't," said Echo-1 "It's strange, every time we try to run a scan on it to find out anything about it, it nearly always comes up blank."

"You're kidding me," said Peterson, a slightly angry tone in his voice "Are you telling me that we've been sitting around on our asses for a week, and you've come up with nothing?"

"Not nothing," said Echo-1 "While we haven't found anything yet, we do believe we might be able to activate this relic soon."

"If that safe?" asked Peterson, the anger leaving his voice to be replaced by worry. "What if it's something like the Halo array, or it's a containment unit for the Flood?"

"That's what you're here for isn't it?" said Echo-1 "If there's a problem just blow to hell."

"Yeah," said Peterson, rubbing his forehead in frustration. He just wanted to get the Hell out of here. Only the research team was taking this mission seriously, even the UNSC wasn't even taking it seriously, they hadn't even been equipped with a smart A.I. for this mission.

"Captain!" shouted an Ensign standing up from his seat and pointing at the relic. Peterson turned to face the relic and felt his jaw drop. In the center of the sphere, there was now a glowing, blue ball of energy, with two rings spinning around it.

"Echo-1," said Peterson, putting his hand to his Com unit again "Did you do that?"

"I think so," said Echo-1 "We were just poking around when it activated, my guess is we accidentally hit the on button."

"We're going to take a closer look," said Peterson. "Take us in Ensign, nice and easy." The _Bright Dawn _began to slowly move forward along the side of the relic. "Echo-1 can you tell what kind of energy this thing is giving off?"

"It looks like Dark Energy," Echo-1 replied "It's beyond me how exactly the relic harness this kind of energy but...Captain, what is doing to your ship?"

The _Bright Dawn_ had just passed the sphere section of the ship, and the Dark Energy in the center of the sphere seemed to be lashing out at the _Bright Dawn _as if it was attempting to envelope it. Without warning, the _Bright Dawn_ accelerated forward as unimaginable speeds. The ship tore through space at unimaginable speeds, not stopping for hours despite the best efforts of the crew. After the ship finally stopped, Peterson approached the front of the bridge.

"Alright Ensign where the Hell are we?" Peterson asked.

"Captain we're..." the Ensign did a double take of the data on his terminal. "That can't be right, according to this we're a hundred thousand light years away from where we were."

"WHAT?" Person shouted "But even with the up to date slipspace drive that we have that would take over a year to travel."

"I know," said the Ensign "That relic must be some sort of method of transportation. Um, does that look familiar to anyone?" the Ensign asked, pointing towards the vast blackness of space. Another relic, completely identical to the one that had catapulted them here in the first place, was glowing in the distance.

"That looks like our ticket back home," said Peterson "Ensign, lay in a course that will take us around the relic, see if we can replicate what brought us here, we have one Hell of a report to make."

January, 13 2600 the _Bright Dawn_ returns to Earth, making a groundbreaking report on the relic. Apparently it is part of a network of identical relics, allowing for near instantaneous transportation across the galaxy. There is a tradeoff however, the relics are only capable of transporting ships to other identical relics. Further study has confirmed that these relics are NOT of Forerunner origin, the design simply does not match. It appears that there was another space faring that once ruled the Milky Way but it is unknown if they came before or after the Forerunners. further research will be conducted on these relics.

This is my new crossover. The original cast cast of Mass Effect will all return (Well a few minor characters might not) in addition I will be adding several OCs that will be joining Shepard on the Normandy. Please note that several original Mass Effect characters will be changed in terms of personality and origin, due to the fact that things have changed drastically. Sorry that it's a little short, it's more of an introductions than a part of the plot.


	2. Contact

Chapter 2

Contact

Now that the UNSC and RSN have found the Mass Relay, what will follow? The First Contact War that's what. I hope I can get this battle right, I'm reading from the Mass Effect wiki as I do so, wish me luck. Also, a little FYI Humanity is making contact with the Council around 500 years later, that means that the 500 have also passed for the Council, example the Quarians have been banished for nearly 800 years now. Because of this, I will have the flexibility to change a few things around, although for now they're only about starship design and even those are minor.

EDIT Alright, due to around half a dozen reviews telling exactly how a MAC works, I decided to rewrite the chapter, or at least the battle portion, if you've already reviewed please PM me on what you think.

February 1, 2600. The RSN conducts it's own experiments with the relic, acquiring similar results to that of the UNSC research team. The UNSC has decided not to colonize any new planets due to security reasons, and being content with it's current, 226 planets. The RSN on the other hand are more than eager to colonize new planets that are now within reach, allowing Unggoy more breeding grounds and Mgalekgolo more alloys to digest.

February 19, 2600. Another one of the relics is discovered and activated near UNSC colony Shanxi. This makes Shanxi vulnerable for attack should Jiralhanae decide to use the relics to rekindle war between themselves and the UNSC and RSN. As a response to this, the UNSC decided to garrison Marines on Shanxi as well as deploy several Super MAC orbital defense platforms. While the Super MACs will easily be able to devastate any ship in orbit, any ship that manages to enter the atmosphere will be completely safe as it is still unknown what devastating effects firing a Super MAC at a planet will have. Scientists can only guess, for the UNSC has dared not experiment on the matter, but projections suggest that the force would crack the planet's tectonic plates.

June 27, 2600. Following the discovery of the relics, several other relics are discovered, although they are much smaller then the ones that serve as transportation. They are being transported back to Earth for research, although hopes are not high for technological advancements.

April 16, 2601. Disaster strikes. While transporting several of the alien relics, a Pelican malfunctions and crashes in Singapore. The strange substance that was contained in the relics leaked out, releasing unknown amounts of dark energy. The long term effects of this disaster can only be guessed at.

May 26, 2603. The N7 Marine program is developed. The purpose of this program is to train Marines to be far more effective then the average soldier. Unofficially, it is the replacement for the SPARTAN project. Since the Human-Covenant war, ONI has constantly been pushing for permission to start the SPARTAN IV program. They have yet to receive permission, although they are slowly gaining supporters.

November 9, 2606. Several odd occurrences were reported, originated from Singapore. Several children have been displaying telekinetic abilities. Although they are minor as best, they have sent researchers scurrying, looking for answers. It is worth noting that all of the children that have displayed ability so far, were fetuses at the time of the Singapore Pelican crash of 2601. It is possible that the dark energy that they were exposed to is responsible for this strange occurrence.

March 5, 2607 General Williams is transferred to Shanxi and is given control of the Marine garrison located there. Several UNSC higher ups complain that the security on Shanxi is a result of paranoia from the Human-Covenant war, and is a waste of resources, but no moves were made to demobilize the garrison, or the orbital defenses.

January 9, 2608. The first generation of the N7 Marines graduate. At the foremost of them, is David Anderson, one of the most promising graduates.

June 16, 2608. Present day. Two UNSC warships, the frigate _Peacekeeper _and the destroyer _Make My Day _ are escorting three freighters to Shanxi. Due to the fact that it is quicker, the ships are traveling via means of the relic.

"We're dropping out," said an Ensign on the bridge of the _Peacekeeper_. Captain Elizabeth Hall nodded from her seat on the bridge. She and her ship had been assigned to a fairly simply mission, escort freighters carrying building supplies to Shanxi. The main reason for this was the Governor of Shanxi had passed a bill to build several new government funded buildings, schools and hospitals among them.

In these days of peace, this was a pretty routine mission, boring and safe, just the way Hall liked it. The freighters all had skeleton crews due to the fact that during the time that it would take to get to Shanxi, offload the supplies, and get back from where they had come from, only two days would pass. The_ Peacekeeper_ and the _Make My Day_ on the other hand, were fully crewed, because no matter how peaceful it is, you never have a military vessel that is short handed.

As the five ships dropped down to normal speed, Hall got a good look at the glowing relic. It had nearly been a decade since they had discovered it, and they still knew so little about it. Hall didn't like it, in fact half of the people in the UNSC didn't like it. After spending so much time reverse engineering Forerunner technology, it was perfectly reasonable for the UNSC to be frustrated with these new relics. While they were useful, all attempts to replicate them had been completely unsuccessful. Still some people weren't bothered by this, saying that Forerunner technology was more reliable anyway, after all if they were to truly unlock the slipspace engines of a Forerunner ship, than these new relics would become outdated in comparison. While Hall saw the reasoning behind this, she still didn't like the way they new nothing about the relics, or who built them. It was if the whirling rings of the relics were taunting her.

Hall shook her head, she had to focus. The relics weren't going, anywhere they could wait. "How long until we reach Shanxi?" she asked, looking at the bridge staff. "Well Shanxi is the closest star system to this relic," the same Ensign said. "So with the new slipspace engine, it should only take us an hour to get to...Ma'am there's something else coming out of the relic."

"What?" said Hall, shock evident in her voice. "Are there any other ships scheduled for transporting goods to Shanxi?"

"Nothing's showing up on COM," said a Lieutenant, sitting at a terminal. "Oh son of a-Ma'am eight ships are dropping down to regular speed. Their designs don't match UNSC or RSN design. Five of them look like frigates, and the other three cruisers. They're at lot smaller than UNSC ships, but that doesn't mean that they can't pack a punch."

"More aliens?" Hall asked? The Lieutenant nodded. "Send this broadcast on all frequencies. This is Captain Elizabeth Hall of the UNSC frigate _Peacekeeper. _We are not looking for trouble, if you could please identify yourselves we will be able to get better aquatinted."

"Message sent," said the Ensign "Looks like the _Make My Day _is sending a similar message."

Hall looked at the alien ships through the viewscreen, one of the upgrades to the new generation of UNSC ships. The seemed to be in formation, the frigates seemed to in tight formation in front of the cruisers, who seemed to be quite a ways behind the smaller ships. 'Funny,' thought Hall 'It's almost like they're in an attack form-OH SHIT!' No sooner had these thoughts run through her head, then all three alien cruisers had fired some sort of weapon that sent projectiles slamming into the freighters, all of which exploded in balls of fire.

"SHIELDS UP!" Hall shouted "Spin up the MAC and load Archers!" No sooner had she spoke, than the enemy cruisers had fired another volley of fire, at the_ Make My Day_, which, thankfully, had managed to raise it's shields before impact.

"The shields on the_ Make My Day_ are down to 60%!" shouted the Ensign. "MAC round loaded and charged, Archer pods at the ready!"

"Fire the MAC at the nearest ship!" Hall shouted "If it's still intact after that, empty the Archers at it!" As she spoke, the_ Make My Day_, fired both of it's MAC guns, which impacted on two of the frigates, both of which exploded in a ball of fire. Not letting up, the _Make My Day_, completely emptied both of it's Archer pods at two of the cruisers. The cruisers fired lasers at the oncoming missiles, causing a around half detonate before reaching the ship, but they had obviously not been prepared for the oversized missile pods that the UNSC still used. As the plasma warheads detonated, the cruisers shields absorbed the blow, although they appeared to weaken significantly.

As everyone on the _Peacekeeper_'s bridge roared in approval, the _Peacekeeper_ fired it's MAC gun at one of the cruisers, causing the MAC round to tear through the shields and the hull, destroying it. Then the Archers were fired, all of them aimed at one of the cruisers that the _Make My Day_ had fired at, which never stood a chance at survival, even as defense lasers desperately attempted to gun down the oncoming missiles. The missiles impacted and the hull collapsed under the strain.

But this victory was short lived, as the remaining frigates closed on the _Make My Day_, they both fired some sort of torpedoes at them. "Ensign, what can you tell me about those torpedos?" Hall asked.

"I can't get a solid read on them Ma'am," the Ensign replied "They're giving of some sort of field that's making the scanners go all screwy and...oh dear Lord, one of the just hit the _Make My Day_, it's shields are down to 20%"

"Wait," said Hall, horror evident in her voice. "If just one took down 40% of the _Make My Day_'s shields, are there are three more of them." Hall looked at the viewscreen, just in time to see the remaining torpedo impacted on the _Make My Day_. The destroyer exploded.

As the bridge crew looked on in horror, the remaining cruisers more projectiles at the _Peacekeeper_, dropping it's shields down to 50%"

"Orders?" the Ensign shouted from his seat, as the frigates regrouped, and began to head in the direction of the _Peacekeeper_.

Hall was quite for a second before she spoke. "We've lost this fight, make a jump to slipspace, I don't care where just get us the hell out of here." The Ensign nodded as be began to punch commands into his terminal. A circular portal opened in front of the _Peacekeeper_, which disappeared into it, narrowly avoiding another volley from the cruisers. As the _Peacekeeper_ vanished through the portal, it closed behind it.

Now safe at slipspace, Hall looked at her crew. "Send an emergency message to the UNSC back on Earth. We've made contact with an alien race that launched an unprovoked attack on us, the three freighters we were escorting, and the _Make My Day_ were all destroyed." Hall took a deep breath "Also, due to the location of the battle, I am concerned that the aliens with discover and attack Shanxi. Also send this message to General Williams at Shanxi. Tell him that he may come under attack at any moment, by a two cruisers and two frigates, although they may call for reinforcements. For all intents and purposes, at this moment, we are at war."

June, 17 2608 alien forces arrive at Shanxi. Although several of their ships were destroyed by Super MACs in orbit, they were still able to land a considerable ground forces, before their fleet retreated. General Williams is engaging the ground forces, in what is currently a stalemate. There is fear that the aliens will return and destroy the Super MACs now that they know what to expected. Therefore reinforcements must arrive before that happens.

The First Contact War ignites, like I said, things are going to work out a little differently this time, so Ashley is probably going to have a different backstory and personality because of this. Well I hope you enjoy, I'm sorry but I won't post the next chapter until I post another chapter of Fighting for a Purpose, just to make sure that I don't get off track.


	3. Deployment

Chapter 3

Deployment

Alright, this is the main engagement of the First Contact War, the Battle of Shanxi. As you might have guessed things are going to play out a little differently this time. Also, don't get used to any of the characters I introduce. After the time skip, at best they're going to be minor characters if they show up at all, most likely they will be officers and play the mentor roll.

At slipspace, a five UNSC ship group was heading for Shanxi. The _Peacekeeper_ had headed back to the nearest UNSC controlled planet, and was now being sent out with the other four ships to eliminate the aliens that had lived on Shanxi. Hall had been given command of the ships due to the fact that out of all the ship's Captains she knew them most about the aliens. Shanxi was a small colony by UNSC standards, only a few small cities spread out thinly over on of the continents.

The aliens seemed to have landed drop ships, and even some of their warships, on the planet to avoid the Super MAC platforms, and were engaged in ground operations, directed at the capital city, New Austin. Apparently the landed ships were frigates and cruisers, and due to speculation it was believed that the only reason that the cruisers had been able to land was that Shanxi was a low gravity planet. Generators were used to create an Earth like gravity around the cities, and the cruisers had landed beyond them along with the frigates and dropships.

"From what we've heard from General Williams," Captain Hall spoke into her COM unit, speaking to the other ships and her own crew. "The aliens are utilizing the use of the laser defense systems on their ships to shoot down any aircraft that flies within range. Because the ships are so spread out, it is too risky to use Pelicans who are too likely to be shot down. Instead we will be using HEV pods to deploy ODSTs to the planet's surface. Williams is estimating that there a couple thousand aliens on the planet. Williams only has five hundred Marines garrisoned in New Austin, so we need to get men on the ground and we needed to do it yesterday."

In the lower decks of the _Peacekeeper, _in an HEV pod,CorporalDamon Winters gulped nervously as he slip on his ODST helmet. He had just been transferred to Sergeant Mack Norman's squad for this very mission, and he was as nervous as heck. "Winters," said the said Sergeant, his helmeted face appearing on one of the pod's two screens "You alright kid?"

"Not really," Damon replied "This is the first time I've been deployed for active combat."

"Yeah, well you're not the only one," Mack said, a comforting tone in his voice. "Unless you served in the Human-Covenant War no body has. We're all nervous kid, but trust me the adrenalin rush you're gonna get from the drop is gonna be so strong you'll forget that your nervous."

Damon smiled as he nodded. "We are dropping out of slipspace," came Hall's voice through the COM-Net ""From what we've heard about the aliens, they use high velocity kinetic weapons. It is unknown how much strain a Marine's or an ODST's shields can take of it before it collapses, so avoid enemy fire at all costs. All ODSTs will be strategically deployed through and around New Austin. Your orders are to do what it takes to drive the aliens out of New Austin. The landed ships seem to be heavily guarded, and are secondary targets, only to be targeted after the city is secured."

There was a shudder throughout Damon's pod as it rotated into position to be deployed. "To all ODSTs," Hall spoke "Good luck, and Godspeed." Damon nearly bit his tongue as his pod was released from the _Peacekeeper, _and began to enter the lower atmosphere. Damon could actually feel the adrenaline flowing threw his veins as he guided his pod with the controls. Damon slammed his fist into a button in the side of the pod, causing his pod's flaps do deploy.

Damon's teeth rattled in his skull as the pod slammed into the ground. Letting out a small sigh relief that he was still alive, Damon grabbed his shotgun, hitting the button that opened the pod door as he did. He climbed out of the pod, seeing the four pods of his squad-mates. Mack climbed out his pod, holding his assault rifle. "This is Alpha-6," Mack said, putting his hand to his COM unit "We've successfully deployed."

"Roger Alpha-6," Captain Hall replied "Good hunting."

They had landed in the middle of street in what looked like down town. "Looks like we're only a couple of blocks away from one of the locations where Williams' Marines are holed up," Mack said, glancing at his HUD. "We're going to head over there and support them." The three other ODSTs climbed out of their pods, Damon couldn't remember their names. Two of them carried battle rifles, and the third carried a sniper rifle. "Follow me!" Mack shouted, as he dashed down the street, Damon and the other ODSTs right behind him.

As the ran through downtown New Austin, signs of war couldn't be more obvious. Cars had been abandoned in the street, some had been overturned, possibly for cover, and one or two had even exploded. As they came to a turn, Mack held his hand, his squad slowing as he did. Mack glanced around the corner, checking for hostiles. Seeing that it was clear, Mack gestured forward, and he and his squad rounded the corner, moving forward cautiously.

The was a loud bang, and the head of one of the ODSTs jerked back as his visor exploded into a shroud of shattered glass. "SNIPER, GET DOWN!" Mack shouted. Mack and the ODST with a sniper rifle ducked behind a destroyed Warthog, while Damon ducked behind an overturned Taxi. The remaining ODST made to dive behind the same Taxi Damon was hiding behind, but a sniper round tore through his shields, and pierced his leg. Letting out a cry, the man fell to the ground, as Damon pulled him behind the Taxi.

"How bad?" Damon asked, holding his shotgun tightly in his hands.

"Pretty bad," the man groaned through gritted teeth. "I'm not sure if I can walk like this."

"Crystal," Mack said, glancing at the ODST next to him "Take him out." The ODST next to him nodded, taking her pistol and throwing it out of cover. There was a loud bang as the sniper fired at the movement. As he did, Crystal leaned out of cover, seeing where the sniper was due to the flash of his gun, and fired. The bullet hit the sniper, who was kneeling on top of a post office, straight in the head. Limply, the sniper fell off of the roof and hit the ground with a dull thud.

"Damn it," Mack said, glancing at the dead ODST. "How's he doing!" Mack shouted at Damon.

"He can't walk!" Damon shouted back, helping the ODST to his feet. "How far away are we from the Marine's garrison?"

"Not very," said Mack, as Damon helped the wounded ODST to his feet. "Looks like those Warthogs still work," he said, pointing to two abandoned Warthogs. "Damon get him into the passenger's seat." Damon, helped the wounded ODST over to the Warthog, lifting him into the passenger's seat, then ran around the Warthog, climbing into the driver's seat.

Mack and Crystal were examining the dead alien. "Looks like a lizard," Crystal remarked. The alien was around the same size as a human, with a curved head, sharp mandibles, and tattoos on its face. "Why do you think they attacked us?" Crystal asked as they walked away, heading for the second Warthog.

"Who knows?" Mack replied. "Maybe we were trespassing on their territory," he said as he climbed into the driver's seat of the Warthog, while Crystal climbed onto the gun. "Damon follow us!" he shouted as the drove off, Damon right behind him.

Both Warthogs rounded the corner, speeding down the street as fast as they could. A small group of the aliens were patrolling down the street. When they spotted the Warthogs, they fired on them, the bullets that they used poked holes in the sides of the vehicles. Crystal brought the turret around and opened fire on the aliens. Two of them collapsed as the drove by and out of sight.

After five minutes of driving, they came to a blockaded hospital, with guns sticking out of the boarded windows. The Warthogs came to a stop, and Damon helped the wounded man out of the Warthog, and to the front of the hospital. "HEY!" shouted Mack, banging on the front door "We're shock troopers, we've got a wounded man!" The was a loud grinding noise as something heavy was moved across the floor, and the door was opened. Two Marines wearing the new standard issue armor were standing behind it. The green armor clung to the Marines' bodies, covering a good deal of it in, acting as adequate protection, in addition to the shields that Marines now had. Orange visors covered their eyes, acting as face protection and HUD. "Inside quickly," they whispered as the ODSTs scurried inside. As they did, the Marines closed the door, and pushed what look like a washing machine in front of it.

"The General is here," one of the Marines "I'll take you to him, he'll be able to give the 411 on what's going. The doctors and nurses are still here, they can take a look at your friend. One of the Marines helped the wounded ODST down one of the hallways and out of sight. One of the other Marines gestured to Crystal, Mack, and Damon to follow him as he walked down one of the hallways.

They passed several rooms with wounded Marines lying on tables, doctors and doctors doing the best that they could to treat them. Eventually they came to a room where a man in a generals uniform was talking with two other men in officer's uniforms around a map of the city. "Sir," said the Marine "Several ODSTs arrived a few minutes ago."

"Good," said Williams turning around to face the ODSTs and smiling wearily. "We're running low on unwounded troops and we can use everyone that we can get. Who's in charge?"

"Me," said Mack, stepping forward "Sergeant Mack Norman. What's the situation here?"

"Not good," Williams said "The aliens make raids on this building every once in awhile, and they're wearing us down. So exactly how much reinforcements did the UNSC send?"

"Three frigates and two destroyers," Mack replied "They've deployed their loads of ODSTs all over the city. Dropships can't get anywhere near the city without the risk of being gunned down by AA."

"That may be enough," said Williams "If we can put enough pressure on the aliens, they may run back to their ships and retreat from this planet."

"Any plans?" Mack asked.

"One," said Williams "The aliens seem to be used the town hall as their HQ, if not there's still a lot of activity going on there. If we hit them here we can disorganize and demoralize them. We've got five Warthogs out back, them, along with the two that you had may be enough to take out town hall. Are you up for it Sergeant?" Mack nodded. "Good, all round up my men. You'll lead the strike. We roll out in ten minutes."

"We'll take E.T. out no problem," Mack said smiling "New Austin will be under UNSC control again in no time."

"Reports are coming in," said an Ensign from one of the terminals on the _Peacekeeper_. "ODSTs are moving in all over the city, we're getting red blips all over the place. We're taking a couple of casualties, but all reports point to that we're slowing moving into the city."

"Good," Hall said, looking sternly at the Shanxi. "They sooner we get New Austin back the sooner we...what the...a slipspace rupture? Everyone on the bridge wheeled to look at the viewscreen. A slipspace rupture had indeed appeared by Shanxi, and a bright purple Assault Carrier was emerging from it. "The RSN?" said Hall, confusion evident in her voice "What are they doing here?"

She was answered as her COM unit beeped. Putting her hand to it, she was answered by the strong calm voice of a Sangheili. "This is the Shipmaster of the _Vigilant Guardian_, we intercepted a distress signal from Shanxi. How may we be of assistance?"

ODSTs are on the ground and the RSN has arrived at the party. In the next chapter (or two) I will finish up the First Contact War and then make the time skip to the events of Mass Effect 1. As always tell me what you think and review. Yeah the guys that got shot were redshirts, didn't want the UNSC to seem invincible.


	4. Forward Assault

Chapter 4

Forward Assault

This chapter will be the main part of the First Contact War, then more likely than not the next chapter will be wrapping up lose ends, then we make our time skip.

"You think that this be enough?" Damon asked as he, Mack and Crystal walked around the back of the hospital with around a dozen Marines. The two Warthogs they had brought had been pulled around back along with the others. Williams was forced to withhold the majority of his Marines due to the fact that the hospital was doubling as an HQ and a shelter for the civilians, along with many other strongpoints throughout the city.

"It'll have to do," Mack said as he, climbed into the driver's seat of one of the Warthogs they had salvaged. Crystal make to climb into the passengers seat, but grunted softly, stepping back as she held her stomach. "Baby acting up Crystal?" Mack asked calmly.

"WHAT?" Damon yelled as he approached the Warthog "Are you telling me that in the middle of an alien invasion, they decided to drop this girl into the middle of hell, and she's pregnant?" Who was the dumb ass who made this..." but he was cut short as Crystal grabbed him from by the collar of his armor and pulled him towards her until he was right in front of her.

"Listen closely," she hissed through her helmet "My alcoholic pathetic excuse for a husband ditched me the second I told him I was late, so I'm in a bit of a bad mood about this whole thing. Second, I am one of the best damn snipers that was available for this mission, and there was no way in Hell I wasn't going. Third I am going to snipe your ass off if you make another wisecrack about..." Crystal stopped talking as if she had just realized what she was going. "Sorry," she said, as she let go of Damon "It's just, you know, mood swings."

"I get it," Damon said, slightly shocked at Crystal's sudden change in emotion. "Just be careful out there."

"Don't need to tell me twice," said Crystal, as she climbed into the passengers seat, as Damon climbed onto the gun. "Still tell anyone else about this, I'll stick my sniper rifle so far up your ass it'll come out your mouth."

"I'll keep that in mind," Damon chuckled, as the Marines climbed into the other Warthogs, which roared to life as they did.

"All right let's roll!" Mack shouting as he floored the acceleration and the Warthog speed forward, the others following behind them. Almost as soon as the pulled onto the city streets, there was a deafening crack. Glancing up, the Marines and ODSTs saw an Assault Carrier emerging from a slipspace directly above them. "The RSN?" Mack muttered as he glanced up "What the Hell is going on here?"

Back in orbit on the _Peacekeeper_, Hall was speechless as the Shipmaster's words reverberated in her mind. As she found her voice again, she spoke the first thing that came into her mind "How did you find out what was going on here?"

"We intercepted your emergency communications," the Shipmaster of the _Vigilant Guardian_ replied "We were despatched from our patrol duties in order to assist in any way that we could."

"Well we certainly could use that," Hall replied. "Some form of unknown species landed on Shanxi and has advanced into the city of New Austin. Marines garrisoned there and ODSTs we just deployed are fighting as hard as they can, but if you're offering help we're more than happy to accept it."

"Very well," the Shipmaster replied "As soon as we are in position, we shall deploy SpecOp troopers throughout the city."

Back on Shanxi, the Warthog charge was closing on the city hall. "We're closing on the city hall," Mack shouted from the front of the Warthog charge. "Strafe around it and spray the hell out of them and chip them down bit by bit. Crystal, how good are you at shooting from a moving Warthog?"

"Very," Crystal hissed, pushing herself a couple of inches above her seat with her feet, and aimed her sniper rifle over the windshield.

"HERE WE GO!" Mack shouted as they drove into sigh of the city hall, and the turrets of the Warthogs roared to life. The seven Warthogs drove towards the city hall, and veered off as they drew close, bullets from the turrets shattered the windows and chewed up the doors off the city hall. The aliens garrisoned inside the hall returned fire, firing out of windows and angling out of doors, ducking their heads down when the turrets came to bear on them, although some were not fast enough. One of the aliens fired what looked like a rocket launcher, and the bright blue projectile slammed into the front of one of the Warthogs. The jeep exploded, the bodies of the driver and the gunner flew limply through the air, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

"Crystal, take that son of a bitch out before we lose another Hog!" Mack shouted as the Warthogs turned around and drove back for another pass on the hall. Crystal aimed down the scope of her sniper rifle, gritting her teeth as the Warthogs passed the hall again, turrets blazing. The alien with the rocket launcher leaned out of cover to fire again, but before he could, a bullet from Crystal's rifle slammed into some sort of shield that was protecting the alien, causing it to collapse. Before the alien could even blink, Crystal fired two more shots, which imbedded themselves in the aliens chest.

As Crystal fired another shot from her rifle, Damon fired the turret at the hall nearly tearing an alien that had been caught out in the open in half. At the loss of alien with the rocket launcher, the enemy forces changed tactics, concentrating fire on one of the rear Warthogs. The driver's shields collapses and a stray bullet tore through his neck. The Warthog flipped and crashed into a nearby department store, exploding as it did.

"Damn it they're picking us off one by one!" Damon swore "We've got to end this fight fast otherwise we're all screwed! Any ideas Mack?"

"I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking!" Mack shouted as he veered the Warthog, avoiding a burst of enemy fire. As he did, a series of spheres slammed into the ground around the city hall. "OIPs?" Mack said looking at the Orbital Insertion Pods as the doors slid open. A Special Operations Sangheili stepped out of each one, carrying weapons with the intent to kill. Around a dozen Sangheili had been deployed around the city hall, and all of them opened fired on the entrenched aliens. Several of their shots found their mark, strangely enough, the plasma bolts that they fired passed through the alien's shields as if they weren't there. As if the aliens had realized this, they incoming fire stopped as the aliens retreated further into the hall.

"They cower and flee before us!" one of the Sangheili shouted as he activated an energy sword and raised it over his head "Hunt them down like the cowards that they are!" Roaring in approval, the Sangheili charged into the city hall, smashing through the barricaded door as if it was plywood.

"Don't just watch!" Mack shouted as he pointed at two of the Warthogs "You four, you're coming with me and Damon, we're helping the Sangheili out!" Everyone else, stay outside incase any of them try to make a run for it.

"Don't take too long," Crystal said as three of the Warthogs stopped in front of the building and Mack and Damon climbed out.

"We won't," Mack said through gritted teeth, as he unholstered his assault rifle. "FORWARD!" he shouted as he, Damon and four Marines charged into the building.

The Sangheili were already in heavy combat with the aliens, mercilessly progressing forward, with a half a dozen dead aliens, and only two dead Sangheili. "Hey there," Mack said, as he and the others came to where the Sangheili and the aliens were staging a vicious firefight. "What brings you so far away from RSN space?" he asked a SpecOp Officer as he slid behind an overturned desk.

"We received word of an attack on one of your colonizes. At first we thought it was either Kig-Yar pirates or a Jiralhanae invasion." The SpecOp Officer paused as he leaned over the desk, firing three shots in rapid succession with his carbine, killing one of the aliens. "Now it is evident that there is another space fairing civilization, clearly hostile. If they think they can attack an ally of the Republic of Sovereign Nations and there will be no repercussions, they are sadly mistaken."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Damon said as he fired his shotgun at one of the aliens, forcing it back into cover. "From what we've seen of them, they can't hope to win a prolonged war with either one of us, let alone both."

"Then they shall perish for their foolishness!" the SpecOp Officer roared as he threw a plasma grenade, which stuck to one of the aliens. As the grenade detonated, bits and pieces of the alien flew through the air. One of the aliens stood up, and extending his empty hand forward as a strange blue/purple aura surround him. One of the Marines flew threw the air, hitting the wall with a loud crack.

"The fuck was that?" Damon shouted as he fired his shotgun again, this time causing an alien to collapse.

"No idea!" shouted Mack "EVERYONE, CONCENTRATE YOUR FIRE!" The surviving Marines, ODSTs and SpecOps leaned out and fired as one. A handful of aliens collapsed under the fire, and the remaining ones ran for the lives down the hallway.

"Looks like they're legging it," Damon said, as he slipped fresh shells into his shotgun.

"It appears that way," the SpecOp Officer said as he and the other Sangheili stepped out of cover. "We shall peruse them, can you search for any equipment that they may have left behind? It may help us find more entrenched positions or maybe even locations of planets that they control. Most likely they would not utilize something similar to your Cole Protocol."

"Sounds like a good idea," Mack said "We'll get right on it. And for what it's worth, I'm glad we're allies."

A small grin flitted over the SpecOp Officer's face "As am I," he said, as he and the other Sangheili charged down the hallway.

"Alright, fan out and look for anything for anything that could contain data," Mack said as he and the others entered adjacent rooms. Damon walked into what looked like a standard cubicle office. The computer that had apparently been used by employees before the invasion had been carelessly pushed off of the desk and now laid shattered on the floor. An odd looking terminal was sitting on the desk in its place. Damon stepped forward looking at it. Odd alien symbols covered the screen and the keyboard, which looked like it was designed for someone with less fingers that Humans. Damon closed the terminal the way you closed a laptop and tucked it under his arm. He had no idea what kind of information was on it, but more than likely a smart A.I. would be able to translate it into English.

"Damon did you find anything?" Mack shouted through the door.

"Yeah," Damon said climbed out of the office and holding up the terminal. "Some sort of computer, might have something useful on it."

"Some of the other guys found something that looked exactly like that," Mack said as he slid his assault rifle onto the magnetic lock on the back of his armor. "I say we should go see how the Sangheili are doing."

Damon and Mack walked to the the rear exit of the of the building and fond the Sangheili standing there, with two dead Sangheili, and five dead aliens. "How did it go?" Damon asked.

"They retreated, they are heading back to their ships by the looks of it," the SpecOp Officer replied. "I am getting reports of similar moves of withdrawal from all over the city." The SpecOp Officer glanced sadly at the dead Sangheili "The alien with those odd powers killed both of them, he was clearly a skilled fighter, it is a shame he got away."

"This was their HQ," Mack explained "Apparently when we took them out here, they decided to make a run for it. Should we go after them."

"No," the SpecOp officer replied as he glanced up at the sky, looking at the _Vigilant Guardian_. "Let them run, they will not get far, the _Vigilant Guardian _has moved into low orbit over the city. If they alien ships wish to escape they will have to get by it first, and they won't."

As I said before, the next chapter will wrap up the event of the First Contact War. Please note that the next chapter will have an important event taking place that will affect a future character's life. By the way, the biotic Turian isn't anyone new, three guess as to he is, and the first two don't count.


	5. Realization

Chapter 5

Realization

This will finish up the First Contact War, and put the UNSC and RSN in contact with the citadel and the rest of the "Galactic Community". I will follow the majority of the plot, but expect me to derail something every once in awhile. By the way, I need to address an issue addressed in one of the reviews I got. I do not have any alcoholic relatives that drive me to put them in stories, it's just a useful plot device that I may have used one time too many, and I will use other devices from now on. The same reviewer addressed that it would be far fetched for a pregnant woman to be one a battlefield, and it is in reality. Still there is a reason she I put her here, and I by the end of this chapter you may figure out why.

"Looks like they're withdrawing," Damon said. He was standing in front of the city hall along with the UNSC and RSN soldiers.

"Yeah," Crystal said looking at the ships that were taking off and heading skyward. It had been half an hour since the city hall had been retaken and it appeared that all of the aliens had retreated to their ships, which were now taking off.

"But it may be all for naught," the SpecOp Officer said, looking upward at the fleeing alien ships, which were heading skyward. "The _Vigilant Guardian _is charging it's plasma torpedos, and from what we've seen of the aliens' shields, they do not block plasma, meaning those ships are as good as dead."

"Let's watch and see," Mack said. Over a dozen alien ships were heading upwards, apparently they had to escape the planet's atmosphere in order to use the faster than light capabilities on their ships. As the ships flew skywards, the_ Vigilant Guardian_ fired two plasma torpedos at a passing frigate, which exploded as they hit the underbelly of the ship.

Not falling out of step, the _Vigilant Guardian_ fired two more plasma torpedos, one slamming into the bridge of a cruiser, and another slamming into the top of a frigate, both of which exploded. Having used all of the charged plasma torpedos, the _Vigilant Guardian_ fired it's pulse lasers at the passing ships. Unfortunately they proved to not be as effective as the plasma torpedos, and although the scorched and burned the hull nearly all of the ships that it hit continuing to speed forward, only slightly slowing down. The sole exception was one frigate, who's engines took a direct hit, causing the ship to slowly fall back to the ground. By this point the other

ships had flown out of range of the _Vigilant Guardian_, within seconds they had broke free of Shanxi's atmosphere, and used technology similar to that of the relics to accelerate to faster than light speed.

"This is Captain Hall to all UNSC ground forces," came Hall's voice through the COM lines. "Alien forces have withdrawn from Shanxi. Dropships will be deployed to retrieve all forces that were deployed, stand by."

"So what happens now?" Damon asked, looking at Mack.

"I don't know Winters," Mack. "We don't know how big these people are, or who commands them. It could be a rouge group of pirates for all we know, best we can do it's be prepared for whatever comes, because..."

"OH YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Crystal shouted at the top of her lungs.

"What is it?" Damon asked as he and mack wheeled around. Crystal pointed up, at the disabled alien frigate, which was still falling towards the planet...and right towards them.

"RUN!" Mack shouted. Everyone ran for their life, trying to put as much distance between them and where they thought that the ship was going to crash as possible. There was an earsplitting crash as the ship slammed into the ground, sending out a massive shockwave that caused nearly everyone to be knocked over.

"Oh, god damn it," Damon swore as he got to his feet. As he did, he realized that a strange dark mist was swirling around him. Turning around, he saw that what ever it was was leaking out of the wrecked ship. "Uh, Mack what the Hell is this shit?

"No idea," Mack said, glancing at the dark mist "I got the feeling that it can't be good through."

Damon glanced at Crystal who was just getting to her feet. Apparently when she had been knocked over by the shockwave, her helmet had fallen off, revealing her soft brown hair. This sent panic through Damon's body, as it meant that she was inhaling the dark mist, not to mention that meant that her child was being exposed to it as well. Similar thoughts seemed to have occurred to Crystal, for she quickly grabbed her helmet and slid it over her head.

"Anyone else want a fucking vacation right about now?" Damon asked in an exhausted voice. Mack, Crystal and all of the Marines nodded. Even one of the Sangheili muttered something about rest being healthy for a warrior. "Pelican," Mack said, pointing up as he saw the dropship descending towards them. "Phantoms too," he added as bright purple dropships descended along with the green one.

"This is where we part ways then," the SpecOp Officer said, looking at Mack and holding out his hand. As Mack took the hand and shook it, the SpecOp Officer continued "There is much to be done, but perhaps we will meet again one day.

Mack nodded as he climbed onto the Pelican along with Damon and Crystal as it closes. "Hey," Damon said to Crystal, uncertainty in his voice "I know that we didn't off on the best of terms, but would you like to, I don't know, get breakfast sometime?"

Crystal looked at Damon "I'd like that," she said, her smile hidden by her helmet.

"Crystal," Mack said, looking at the sniper "We're going to have to get you an MRI when we get to a facility that has one, you inhaled some of that shit and we need to make sure that you and Junior are alright." Crystal nodded.

On the _Peacekeeper _Hall took her hand away from her COM unit, letting out a sigh of exhaustion as she slid into a chair. She had just gotten word from General Williams, all of his forces were reporting that all alien forces had withdrawn from New Austin. Despite the fact that casualties were remarkably light compared to those of the Human Covenant War, things looked grim. 'This could mean war,' Hall through 'It might end up being even worse than the Human Covenant War, and even if it isn't war is still Hell.' She let out a sigh, as she glanced at the viewscreen which displayed the Vigilant Guardian exiting Shanxi's atmosphere. 'Well,' she thought, smiling slightly 'At lest we won't be heading into the storm alone.'

"Captain," said the Shipmaster of the _Vigilant Guardian_ through Hall's COM unit "Our forces have been retrieved, we must return to Sangheilos. the clouds of war are gathering and the RSN Council must be notified of what happened here."

"The UNSC must be informed of the same thing," Hall replied.

"Very well," said the Shipmaster "Know this Captain, the RSN will not abandon Humanity in it's time of need."

"I'm glad to hear that Shipmaster," Hall said "But I really must be going. Ensign," Hall said, taking her hand away from her COM unit "As soon as all of the Pelicans are on board, make the jump to slipspace. Head to Earth."

June, 20, 2608 General Williams confirms complete alien withdrawal from Shanxi. Williams expressed that after the invasion, that he simply wanted to get back home and see his son, whose wife was expecting a baby.

June, 21, 2608 A massive mobilization of UNSC is conducted, ships are deployed to defend colonies while fleets are being formed to go on the offensive.

June, 22, 2608 The RSN council announces that it will be joining the war alongside humanity. Indirectly and unintentionally, this move dissolves much of the tension between the RSN and the UNSC.

June, 23 2608 All war efforts have been called off, the UNSC and the RSN have have been contacted by an organization of aliens that call themselves the Council. The claim that the Invasion of Shanxi was simply a misunderstanding. If they are to be believed, than the reason that the aliens, called Turians, attacked, was because we were using a relay that we had activated without, said Council's permission, apparently this is against Council law. Negotiators will be sent by both the UNSC and the RSN to a place called the Citadel, apparently the Capital of the Council.

June, 24, 2608 An odd message has been found all over various Human means of communication calling for a "Cerberus" to be formed to establish human dominance in the galaxy. Many people have dismissed this as the ravings of a lunatic, as they believe that very few Humans are stupid enough to think that the UNSC could dominate both the Council and the RSN. Still officials are keeping an eye out for sender of these messages, who is commonly referred to as an "Illusive Man"

Estimated causality rate of the First Contact war, factoring in that Turian ships have much smaller crews than UNSC ships.

Turians 1650

UNSC 1400

RSN 100

Yeah it was a little short but it was mainly wrapping up loose ends, still I think I managed to pull that off. Please review and tell me what you think. Also due to the fact that I can't make up my own mind about this, please tell me if you want a male or female Shepard and Inuboy I already know that you want a male so it isn't necessary for you to tell me. Please be informed that I will think it through who I pair Shepard with, if I pair him/her with anyone, after I tally the votes to see what Shepard's gender is. I'll give this poll 24 hours, so please vote and tell me what you want.


	6. Timeline

Chapter 6

Timeline

Wow, these timeline entries took up so much space that I had to give them their own chapter. As you can probably noticed I changed quite a few things around, well I decided since I was writing this story, I may as well take a couple of things that bugged me in Mass Effect and fix them. Oh by the way, due to a landslide vote, Shepard will be male.

October 16, 2608 The UNSC and RSN establish embassies on the Citadel, mainly to keep a window of communication and diplomacy open with the Council although many are hesitant with the Council species.

December 12, 2608 Crystal Reed gives birth to a healthy baby boy. Damon Winters was reported to be present.

January, 25, 2609 Damon Winters proposes to Crystal Reed, who accepts, they marry three months later. Crystal's son Taylor is revealed to be a biotic, an individual capable of manipulating dark energy through exposure to a substance known as Element Zero as a fetus. Apparently this was the cause of the telepathic children in Singapore. According to Council sources biotics have the capability to become effective soldiers if implants are used to magnify their ability.

September, 18, 2611 An incident occurred today that nearly resulted in war. A Salarian negotiator panicked upon learning that the Marathon-class cruiser he was being given a tour of had a smart A.I.. Upon Captain Hall questioning why he was panicking, he demanded that the A.I. be destroyed, as they were against Council law, causing tempters to flare among UNSC personal. Hall then declared the the A.I. aboard the ship was no less a part of the crew then she was, and that the UNSC wasn't going to destroy a single A.I. just because of the Council's paranoia. The Salarian was silent for the rest of the tour, several Marines later quoted that Hall had scared him senseless.

July, 1, 2613, The first UNSC dreadnought, the _Guardian,_ is finished in a Reach shipyard. The ship is the first UNSC ship to be equipped with a Super MAC in addition to the four regular ones. The ship is also capable of firing 8 oversized Archer pods at once, and carries over a thousand Marines, ODSTs and vehicles and equipment used that can be used for a myriad of combat situations. It is the largest UNSC front line combat ship ever built at 2.3 kilometers long with 35 decks and a crew of 6000 in addition to the Marines and ODSTs. The UNSC has stated that it intends to make more dreadnoughts.

April, 8, 2614 The L1 becomes the first biotic implant to be used in Humans. Although the L1 implants magnified the ability of the biotics their powers are still too weak for military use and the implants are widely considered to be a failure.

August, 16, 2616 Elizabeth Hall is promoted to Admiral, on the same day Mack Norman is promoted from Major to Colonel.

October, 24, 2617 The BAaT program begins to train a new group of biotics. One of the UNSC higher ups suggested hiring a Turian Commander to train the recruits. On the prospect that the suggested Turian was a veteran of the Shanxi War and bitter against Humans, the idea was stamped out and an Asari was instead hired for the position, on the grounds that they were better at inter-species relationships.

January, 9, 2618 The largest armada of ships ever seen was spotted near Sangheilos. Thinking that it was an invasion fleet, the Sangheilos Defense Fleet was organizing when the armada contacted them, identifying itself as the Migrant Fleet. The RSN learned of the Quarians this day, who are only numbered at 17 million and live on a fleet of ships instead of a planet. When questioned why the lived on ships instead of a planet, the Quarians sadly replied that their home world had been overrun 800 years ago by machines that the Quarians had created called the Geth. The Quarians continued to explain that because they had broken the Council laws they had lost their embassy on the Citadel and mainly been left to fend for themselves. Due to their weak immune systems Quarians had been unable to colonize new planets and were forced to live as spacers living off of what they could find. Negotiators were sent aboard the Migrant fleet.

June, 29, 2619 The recruits of BAaT are issued the L2 implants with varied results. Some are barley stronger than the L1s while many are much stronger, yet suffer a multitude of health problems. A handful are stable and strong, these people will most likely go on to become Marines or ODSTs.

February, 19, 2620 UNSC expedition ships discover a planet with a habitual atmosphere. Further scans reveal that the planet is exposed to little or no radiation. As a result there is little development in local plant and wildlife, and scientists predict that plants from Earth would quickly overrun the native plants. Because of the uniqueness of this planet, it was named after a planet in a famous novel by Robert Heinlein, Sanctuary.

March, 16, 2622 An outraged Sangheili negotiator returned to Sangheilos with news that angered many Sangheili. The negotiator had witnessed a Krogan picking the pocket of a Volus, yet when the Volus realized that he had been robbed, he accused a nearby Quarian of being the thief. But what had infuriated the negotiator to no end, was that the Turian C-Sec officer that the Volus had complained to, had instantly believed that the Quarian was guilty. The negotiator then angrily informed the Volus and C-Sec officer of the Krogan that had robbed the Volus, and both of them had marched off without apologizing to the Quarian. The Sangheili was further infuriated after asking the Quarian if she was all right, when she simply replied that her people were used to it. The negotiator proposed an idea to the RSN council had has not been released to the public yet.

May, 11, 2623 The UNSC and RSN expand to the Skyllian Verge. The UNSC colonize planets there for heavy mining, while the RSN used them for Unggoy breeding grounds. This caused tensions to spark between the Batarian Syndicate, and both the UNSC and RSN for the Batarians had been planning to colonize those planets.

August, 8, 2624 The L3 implants are developed and issued, Taylor Winters being one of the biotics to receive them. The biotics that were implanted with them are displaying a moderate level of biotic power and, so far, no health issues have been found. Some still use the L2 however preferring the higher limits that it allow, despite the health issues.

September, 3, 2625 The RSN requests permission from the UNSC to colonize the planet Sanctuary. Due to the fact that the UNSC is focusing on developing it's existing colonizes and it's newly colonized planets in the Skyllian Verge, the UNSC allows the RSN to colonize Sanctuary, which, despite being discovered half a decade ago had yet to be colonized. When asked what the RSN planned to do with the planet, the Sangheili negotiator simply replied, "Something the Council should have done a long time ago."

September, 10, 2625 The Migrant Fleet, which had been in RSN space for the last 7 years, stumbled across Sanctuary. The RSN ships in orbit contacted the fleet with a proposition, the RSN offered the Quarians the chance to colonize Sanctuary, the viruses and bacteria on the planet would pose no threat to the Quarians due to the planet's uniqueness. The Quarians agreed.

June, 9, 2627 Pirates and criminals, who were later revealed to be funded by the Batarian Syndicate, launch a surprise attack on the UNSC colony of Elysium. Due to the fact that the ships were not military they were able to slip pass orbital defenses before the defensive personal realized what was going on. Elysium was a small colony, so defenses were at a minimum. In fact the Batarians actually breached UNSC defenses and nearly destroyed the colony. The only thing that stopped them, was a single ODST that held off the Batarians that were marching through the breach. The ODST identified himself as William Shepard.

October, 5, 2628 Now having established colonies on the surface of the Sanctuary, and RSN established orbital stations to meet the needs of the Migrant Fleet, the Quarian Admiralty Board and Conclave approached the RSN after debating for several days on an offer that the RSN had made. On that day, the Quarians were absorbed into the RSN. One UNSC Marine was quoted to have said "I can't say I'm really surprised, the Sangheili always were the big brother types to the Unggoy, the Huragok and the Mgalekgolo, it only makes sense that they would help out the Quarians. Just one thing, mess with any of their 'wards' and they will fucking destroy you."

October, 25, 2628 The Council displays poorly concealed anger when confronting the Sangheili ambassador Rtas 'Vadum about the Quarians being absorbed into the RSN. They anger that they showed, which had existed since the first Quarian set foot on Sanctuary, had intensified, at least in the cases of the Salarian and Turian Councilors. The Council declared that the reason that the Quarians had been exiled was that they had released a very dangerous force onto the galaxy. Rtas calmly replied, that whatever the Quarians had done, the Sangheili had done much worse. Rtas was quoted to have said "We enslaved the Unggoy the Mgalekgolo, and the Huragok. We carried out the evil wishes of the Prophets, and led a genocidal war against Humanity and nearly wiped out all life in the galaxy. Despite all of this, we saw the error of our ways and attempted to atone for our sins. The majority of Humanity and the species we enslaved, have seen it fit to give us a second chance. If monsters like us deserve a second chance, than the Quarians defiantly do."

May, 26, 2629 In response to the Skyllian Blitz, the UNSC launches an attack on pirate bases located on the moon Torfan. The UNSC contacted the bases, telling them to surrender or face destruction from orbital bombardment. A handful of Batarians panicked and surrendered to the UNSC while the majority proclaimed that they would rather die than surrender to Humans. The UNSC dreadnought _Protector_, in the first recording of a UNSC dreadnought in active combat, fired it's Super MAC at the base on Torfan. Not only was the base destroyed, the MAC struck the moon with such force that it shattered into dozens of larger of chunks.

Autumn, 6, 2631 While originally wary of A.I.s due to their history with the Geth, a good majority of the Quarians have come to trust the Smart A.I.s used by the UNSC and RSN, convinced that they are not like Geth. The first recorded Quarian Smart A.I. was flash cloned today.

March, 17, 2634 In an attempt to ease tensions, the UNSC, RSN, and Turian Hierarchy begin a joint operation on an experimental frigate. The ship is known as the_ Normandy_.

I would like to thank andrewjameswilliams for sending me the design of the UNSC dreadnought. That was a lot of information, I think I'll stop here. Let explain why I did with the Quarians, as one of my readers said very well (I forget his name) The Council pretty much abandoned the Quarians. I thought about that, and then I thought about what the Hanar did for the Drell when they were in trouble and I read _Starship Troopers _so I thought 'Why not?' I seriously doubt that the Quarian's home planet was the only planet with an ecosystem like that in the whole galaxy. I've got to start playing Mass Effect again, the memories are a little fuzzy. Well tell me what you think.


	7. Eden Prime

Chapter 7

Eden Prime

Let me just this out of the way for my Shepard, he's a spacer, a War Hero (You probably figured that out) a Soldier and a default male appearance. Let me say this right now I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT. I don't care if you think Shepard would be better as a Sentinel or a Vanguard every time I played Mass Effect I picked the soldier class, and that's what I'm using for this story, if you've got a problem with that then I really don't care. Alright, this chapter will start the events of Eden Prime and will introduce some of my OCs more will show up as the story progresses. By the way the inside of the _Normandy_ is identical to the one in Mass Effect 2 in terms of interior and size. I liked that one better and I thought why not?

Taylor Winters relaxed against the side of a Warthog, his short brown hair moving slightly in the soft breeze. He wore ODST armor, his helmet lying next to him He was sitting near a wide expanse of growing crops, one of many stationed on Eden Prime. Despite high hopes, the planet had never become quite as successful as Harvest with many other planets producing just as much produce, some more. As a result, Eden prime was not expected to be attacked any time soon. Because of these, defenses were relatively light. A couple hundred Marines and a handful of frigates in orbit were all the defenses that it had, but the UNSC was happy with it.

Taylor had an open book in his hands, _The Crassus Campaign - A History_, by Sarah Jennings. It was a novel that detailed one of the last battles of the Human-Covenant war, the Battle of Crassus. The battle hadn't been incredibly significant, with Crassus being a run down colony. What had made the battle famous to this very day, was that it was one of the first recorded instances of Humans and Sangheili fighting side by side.

Taylor was quite submerged in the book and barley noticed when an ODST approached him. "Working hard or hardly working?" the ODST asked in a feminine voice. Taylor looked up to see a women with red hair that was short and cropped, a popular style in the military.

"Would you believe hardly working?" Taylor asked.

The woman laughed. "As a matter of fact I would. There's not much to do out here is there? You're Taylor Winters right?"

"How'd you know that?" Taylor asked "Have we met before?"

"No we have not," the woman replied "No offense but you're the only biotic on the planet. I read about you in the database a few hours ago an I recognized your face. I'm Rebecca Frost by the way."

"Taylor Winters, Rebecca Frost, how much you wanna bet that someone's going to make a joke about that?"

"Maybe a couple hundred," Rebecca said as she sat in the passengers seat of the Warthog. "Anyway, have you heard about the Prothean beacon that they found?"

"Prothean beacon?" Taylor asked, looking interested.

"Yeah," said Rebecca, a research team found it yesterday. They've forbidden us from telling the civilians or anyone off planet about it, they're scared that pirates are going to steal it apparently. The UNSC decided that bringing it to the Citadel would be a good way to cool tensions with the Council."

"Makes sense," Taylor said, as he closed his book and climbed into the Warthogs passenger seat. "They're really big on Prothean technology, Hell, the Hanar worship them for Christ's sake."

"To be fair, we have no idea what we can get out of that beacon," Rebecca said "Forerunner technology is apparently more advanced than Prothean in some ways, but you have to admit that those Mass Relays are amazing it terms of how fast you can go."

"True," Taylor said "But the relays bug me a little bit."

"In what way?" Rebecca asked, a curious look on her face.

"When the Halo array was fired it any other civilizations should've been sent back to the stone age. Also, from what we've been able to tell, the Forerunners spent eons perfecting their technology. This raises a question, how did the Protheans develop such advanced technology so quickly? And while I'm at it, what happened to them?"

Rebecca shook her head. "Nobody knows. Maybe they had a bad run in with the Flood and fired the Halo array again."

"Maybe," Taylor said. The two were silent for a moment, before Taylor's helmet began to beep. "What the?" he said, as he grabbed the helmet and put it on, Rebecca doing the same with her helmet. "Looks like an emergency COM broadcast," Taylor said.

"JESUS CHRIST!" a panicked voice came through "To anyone who can assist, an unknown fleet is attacking Eden Prime! The flagship is massive and whatever kind of weapon it's using is cutting through out ships like it's nothing, we didn't even get a chance to fire our MACs! The ships that have survived have sustained heavy damage, and need to retreat, any and all UNSC forces HELP!"

Taylor took his hand away from his COM unit, and pulled his designated marksman rifle, or DMR, off of his back, slapping a clip into it. Looking at Rebecca, Taylor saw her slipping shells into a shotgun. "Do you think that they're here for the beacon."

"It's a possibility," she said. "I know where it is, get on the turret, I'll drive." Taylor nodded as he climbed out of the driver's seat and manned the turret, while Rebecca slipped into the driver's seat.

"Um, is it a safe bet that those are dropships?" Taylor asked pointing at a pair of ships that were descending towards their position. They were gray and seemed to be rather jagged.

"I've got a bad feeling that they are," Rebecca said as she slammed on the acceleration. "I think you better warm up that gun."

The _Normandy _tore through space at an incredible speed. The _Normandy_ was a rather unique ship, it was around the size of a standard UNSC frigate, yet only required a skeleton crew to operate at maximum capacity. It was much larger than a Turian frigate, and originally it had been thought that it would be unable to land on most planets. However, the ship had been installed with RSN anti-gravity technology, so landing on a planet would be a cinch. Although it's engines were based off of Mass Effect technology, the _Normandy _was still equipped with a slipspace engine which was much more effective than any Mass Effect FTL with the exception of the Mass Relays. In addition to that it was equipped to prototype stealth systems, one system masked the engines making them invisible to radar, while a cloaking system rendering visual contact impossible.

In the communication's room Commander Shepard stood before Captain Anderson, and the Spectre Nihlus.

"So let me get this straight." Shepard said "We're going to Eden Prime to recover a Prothean beacon?"

"That's right Shepard," said Anderson, looking at Shepard "This is big, Prothean technology is the template for every last Council race with the exception the UNSC and RSN. The UNSC wants to cool the tensions between Humanity and the Council. We're haven't been on very good terms with them every since the Quarians were absorbed into the RSN."

Shepard frowned "Why would we be on bad terms with the Council because of that?"

"It's simple really," said Nihlus "The UNSC found Sanctuary and gave it to the RSN. While it is rather unreasonable, many view the UNSC as having helped the Quarians find a new planet. Many still resent the Quarians for having created the Geth, which are still in existence. Many are afraid of the Geth, and since they can not strike against the Geth, they strike against their creators."

"There's also the fact that some people are afraid of Humans," Nihlus continued. "They control over 200 planets and have quite a massive fleet. Some people look at your kind and fear you wish to rule the galaxy. They see danger, but some, like me, see potential. Delivering this beacon to the Citadel will allow many others to see that Humanity cares about other species and not just themselves."

"But that's not all," said Anderson "We want to go one step further in proving that Humans can be trusted."

"Your species shows amazing comprehension, being the only known one to have become a space fairing civilization with technology it developed itself," Nihlus said. "In addition to that, During the Blitz you demonstrated amazing skill an courage, holding off an advance single handily. Not every soldier could do that, that's why I put your name forward for the Spectres."

"You want me to join the Spectres?" Shepard asked, glancing at Anderson. Anderson nodded. "What exactly would I have to do?"

"I need to see your skills first hand," Nihlus said "Eden Prime will be just the beginning of my analysis, several other missions will follow."

"Shepard, you'll be leading the ground team," Anderson said, looking at Shepard. "Get the beacon and get it onto the ship ASAP, Nihlus will accompany you."

Shepard nodded "Just give the word."

"Good," said Anderson "We should be getting close to Eden-"

"Captain! we've got a problem," Joker's voice said coursing through the COM lines.

"What is it Joker?" Anderson asked, putting his hand to his COM unit.

"Emergency transmission from Eden Prime, audio only," Joker answered. "You're going to want to listen to this."

"Put it through Joker," Anderson commanded.

A panicked voice made it's way into the COM lines. "To anyone who can assist, an unknown fleet is attacking Eden Prime! The flagship is massive and whatever kind of weapon it's using is cutting through out ships like it's nothing, we didn't even get a chance to fire our MACs! The ships that have survived have sustained heavy damage, and need to retreat, any and all UNSC forces HELP!" After that, static was the only noise that could be heard.

"Everything cuts out after that, no COM traffic at all," Joker said, a slightly nervous tone in his voice. "There's nothing."

"Joker status," Anderson commanded.

"Thirteen minutes out captain, no other UNSC ships in the area." Joker replied.

"Take us in, fast and quite, bring the stealth systems online," Anderson said, a grim look on his face.

"A small strike team can move quickly without drawing attention," Nihlus said, looking at Anderson "It's our best way of securing the beacon. There's no way that this attack is just a coincidence."

Anderson nodded "Grab your gear and meet us in the cargo hold," Anderson told Nihlus, who nodded and began to walk away. "Shepard, tell Alenko and Williams to suit up, you're going in."

Minutes later in the cargo hold, Ashley and Kaidan were strapping on the last of their ODST armor. "Nervous?" Kaidan asked, looking at Ashley as he loading his SMG.

"A bit," Ashley admitted as she inserted a clip into her assault rifle. "I just got transferred to this ship and things are already blowing up. And I thought things were just going to be annoying with Joker hanging around.

Kaiden smiled "He tends to have that effect on people." Straightening up, both ODSTs turned to face Anderson, standing on either side of Shepard.

"Alright Shepard, you're the muscle in this operation," Anderson said over the roar of the engines. "Go in fast and hard, and head for the beacon." As he spoke, the loading bay doors opened, and Nihlus jumped out. "Nihlus will scout out ahead and feed you status reports, apart from that, maintain radio silence."

"We've got his back," Shepard said, who was now, like Ashley and Kaidan, wearing full ODST armor.

"Approaching drop point 2," Joker said over the COM lines.

"Here we go," Shepard muttered.

Please note that The Battle of Crassus was not my original idea or in Halo cannon. That little part of my story with just a shout out to the fan fiction The Enemy of my Enemy. If you have not read it yet, I suggest that you go do so now.

Also remember this, when reading about my OCs remember that there may be more than meets the eye,(No they aren't transformers) They all have backstory waiting to be revealed, well except Taylor his backstory has pretty much already been laid out, I just need to give it filling. Well please review and tell me what you think.


	8. The Beacon

Chapter 8

The Beacon

Hm, the last chapter didn't get as many reviews as the ones before it, oh well. Halo Reach draws ever closer, I'm upset to hear that Bungie will stop making Halo games after this, sigh here's to Bungie, may you go out with a bang

"What the hell are these things?" Taylor shouted over the roar of the Warthog's turret. Rebecca was driving as fast as the Warthog would allow, heading for the dig site where the beacon was. Taylor was firing the Warthogs turret, at what appeared to be machines with an organic shape. They were swarming every last Human establishment in sight, shooting every last person that they saw, soldier of civilian.

"I recognize them from a file I read!" Rebecca shouted "They're Geth!"

"Those self-aware machines that the Quarians created?" Taylor asked "Well this is going to be just great for their public image!" he said sarcastically.

"Worry about that later!" Rebecca told Taylor, as she drove the Warthog through a field of grain, crushing the plants underneath the tires "We need to get to that beacon, we're not that far!"

"Good!" Taylor replied, downing a silver Geth with the turret "The sooner this is over the..." Taylor paused as he spotted a red Geth, aiming what looked like a rocket launcher at the Warthog. "Shit!" Taylor swore as he brought the turret around, spraying bullets at the Geth. The Geth's shields failed, and the Geth itself collapsed, but not before it had managed to fire a rocket. "ROCKET!" Taylor roared "JUMP!" Both he and Rebecca jumped out of the Warthog, just a few seconds before the rocket slammed into the side of it.

The Warthog exploded, rolling over several times before it finally came to a stop, upside down and on fire. "Damn it," Rebecca muttered as she got to her feet, taking her shotgun off of her back. "I guess we're walking the rest of the way," she said to Taylor, as he removed his DMR from his back. Taylor nodded as they both moved forward, under the cover of the grain. "This should be it," Rebecca said, as she and Taylor looked over the edge of a small cliff at the dig site. It was empty.

"Fuck," Taylor swore "It's not here anymore." He turned to face Rebecca "Who do you think took it, the Geth or our people?"

"No clue," Rebecca said honestly "We should move up to the camp," she said, pointing away from the dig site and towards a hill. "If it's still on this planet it'll be there."

"Alright, let's move," Taylor said as he and Rebecca began to sprint up the hill and towards the camp.

Not too far away, Shepard and his squad were advancing on the dig site. "It should be at the end of this trench," Ashley said, as she, Kaiden and Shepard, all advanced towards the dig site.

"Things aren't looking too good here Shepard," Nihlus said over the COM lines "There's some burned out buildings, and a lot of bodies. I'm going to check it out, I'll catch up with you at the dig site."

"Contact!" Kaiden shouted, as he dove behind a rock, Shepard and Ashley taking cover behind a destroyed Warthog. Three Geth Troopers approached them, firing their rifles at the positions of the three ODSTs. Ashley leaned out of cover, and threw a plasma grenade at one of the Geth. The grenade stuck to the Geth's arm and detonated, destroying it. A dark blue aura appeared around Kaiden as he exited cover and extended his arm. Both remaining Geth were enveloped by a similar aura, and floating helplessly in the air, as if gravity no longer affected them. Lining the Geth up, Shepard fired his battle rifle, eliminating both Geth.

"The dig site should be right up ahead," Kaiden, as the three of them sprinted forward and into the dig site. "What the... there's nothing here?"

"Shit," Ashley swore softly "Either the Geth took it, or it was moved."

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Shepard said in a worried voice "Weren't there supposed to be hundreds of Marines and ODSTs stationed at this colony."

"Oh son of a..." Kaiden said, as he looked behind Shepard "There's a couple of them right there." Shepard and Ashley turned around to see three Marines impaled on giant spikes.

"Jesus," Ashley muttered as they approached them "No respect for the dead." As they approached the spikes they lowered and the bodies on it began to move. "Are they still alive?" she said as the bodies detached themselves from the spikes.

"What did the Geth do to them?" Kaiden said, as he got a good look at the bodies. The flesh had decayed to a sickly gray, and glowing blue cybernetics were visible through openings in the flesh. The creatures attempted to rush the ODSTs, but were quickly cut down by concentrated fire.

"I don't know what's going on here," Shepard said, looking at Ashley and Kaiden "But we need to find that beacon if it's still here, or where it is if it isn't. The longer we stick around the farther away it can get from here."

"Change of plans Shepard," came Nihlus's voice over the COM lines "There's a small spaceport up ahead, I want to check it out. I'll be meet you there."

"Alright," Shepard said, looking at his squad mates "Let's get to that spaceport."

Nihlus slid into cover behind a crate as he approached the spaceport. Pointing his rifle out of cover, he quickly scanned the port, and saw a Turian standing there. "Saren?" the Spectre said in a surprised voice.

The Turian turned to face Nihlus. "Nihlus," he replied as he began to walk towards him.

"This isn't your mission Saren, what are you doing here?" Nihlus asked as Saren approached him.

"The Council thought that you could use some help on this one," Saren said as he placed a comforting hand on Nihlus' shoulder.

Nihlus let out a sigh, and turned around to look at several burning buildings. "I wasn't expecting the Geth, the situation's bad," he said in a worried voice.

"Don't worry," Saren said, as he drew a pistol, aiming it at Nihlus' back "I've got it under control," he said as he pulled the trigger. The shot impacted on Nihlus' barriers, and two more followed. As Nihlus wheeled around in response to the shots, a fourth shot slammed into his chest, piercing a lung and causing Nihlus to drop his rifle. Despite the injury, Nihlus charged at Saren, attempting to wrestle the gun from his grip, but Saren's fist connected with the side of Nihlus' temple, knocking him out.

"Nothing personal Nihlus," Saren said as he aimed his pistol as Nihlus' head. "But I can't have any witnesses." His finger tensed on the trigger, but before he could pull it, a bullet slammed into it, blowing the pistol out of his hand. Saren looked around widely, trying to see where the shot came from. When he was unable to, knowing it was suicide to fight a hidden sniper, he quickly climbed onto the nearby cargo train and, slammed on the controls that activated it. As the train sped off, he allowed himself a small smile.

'More likely than not I would have had to abandon my position as Spectre, I would have been caught in the act sooner or later,' he thought. 'Besides Nihlus has a pierced lung an a concussion, the chances of him surviving are low, and I'll just deny any testimony from a Human. I will simply say that they are delirious from the invasion, the Council still doesn't trust them so everything will work in my favor.' He registered the urge to laugh, the Council's narrow minded tendencies was going to easy.

"Why did you shoot the pistol, why didn't you shoot him in the head?" Rebecca asked as she and Taylor ran towards the wounded Turian. "If you had done that he might not have gotten away."

"Yeah, but it might have caused him to clench down on the trigger, and the other Turian would be dead," he replied as they crouched down beside the wounded Turian. "You got any Medi-gel?" he asked.

"No, just some Biofoam, but it should do the job," Rebecca said as she pulled a canister out of her backpack. She inserted the tip into the hole in the Turian's armor and pulled the trigger. The white foam was injected into the Turians wound, filling the hole and holding the lung in place. "Well, that should hold together for six hours," Rebecca said as she threw the empty canister to the side "We have to get him to a proper medical facility before then."

"Yeah," Taylor said as her looked around at the destroyed colony "Good like finding one of those around here. What we need to do is..." Taylor stopped when he heard what sounded like a crate being overturned.

"Who's there?" Rebecca shouted pointing her shotgun at the crate that the noise had come from. A nervous looking dock worker stood up from behind the crate, holding his hands above his head.

"Don't shoot, I'm not a Geth," he said in a panicked voice.

"What were you doing back there?" Taylor asked, looking at the dock worker.

"I was..." the worker said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment "Taking a nap. When I woke up everything was going to hell and I'm just glad that that other Turian didn't find be back here."

"You saw that?" Rebecca said, lowering her shotgun "Is there any chance that you saw anything else?"

"Um yeah," the worker said as he rubbed his temples "They were talking, I think that they knew each other. I heard that one," he pointed to the unconscious Turian "Call the other one Saren. He let his guard down, and Saren just shot him in the back."

"None of this makes sense," Taylor said as he looked around "The Geth pop up, Turians killed each other," Taylor paused as he looked off on the distance "There's that too," he said pointing towards a distant hill. Rebecca turned and saw a massive ship in the distant. "What the Hell is that thing?" Taylor asked.

"It looks like a ship," Rebecca said, looking at the ship. "God damn it, it's the size of dreadnought." As the spoke, the ship lifted off, leaving a trail of reddish smoke behind.

"Did you see the size of that thing?" came a voice from behind Taylor and Rebecca. Both of them wheeled around to see three other ODSTs standing behind them. "Who are you?" the center one asked in deep male voice. "What the-what happened to Nihlus?" he said, pointing at the unconscious Turian.

"Another Turian called Saren shot him," Rebecca said "As for who we are, I'm Lance Corporal Rebecca Frost."

"Specialist Taylor Winters," Taylor said "We sealed up Nihlus with Biofoam, he'll be alright. Saren jumped on that train and took off. If you're looking for the Prothean beacon then it's probably over there somewhere."

"Alright," said the ODST "I'm Commander Shepard, we were supposed to be the team to pick up the beacon when the Geth attacked. We'll go after the beacon, keep an eye on Nihlus, we'll be right back."

"Got it," Taylor said as Rebecca nodded. "You know someplace safe that you can lay until this is all over?" he asked, looking at the dock worker. The worker nodded before running off, obviously eager to be gone.

Taylor and Rebecca watched as Shepard and the other two ODSTs climbed onto a cargo train, and sped off. Taylor sighed as he looked at Nihlus. "Eden Prime is never going to be the same again," he muttered.

After five minutes of travel, the train came to a stop and the passengers disembarked. As they did so, they spotted a blinking canister not to far away. "Demolition charges!" Kaiden shouted as Shepard ran towards the canister, and opened a hatch. After a few seconds of work, the charge ceased to blink, having been disarmed.

"There's bound to be more than that, we need to get moving!" Ashley shouted as Shepard stood up and the three of them ran up the nearby stairs. A Geth with an assault rifle aimed at them as they came up the stairs, but Shepard destroyed it with three well placed bursts.

Emerging onto a set of catwalks, the squad fired on a small group of Geth, causing two to fall, the other two quick to follow. "Looks like they were in a hurry," Shepard said as he ran to the end of the the catwalk and disarmed the bomb there. "There weren't that many charges."

"Commander," Kaiden said, pointing "Look it's the beacon." Shepard and Ashley looked where Kaiden was pointing and, sure enough, the beacon was there, glowing dimly. "It's still here, and by the looks of it, it's been activated," Kaiden said looking at the beacon as Shepard pressed his hand to his COM unit.

"Roger Normandy, standing by," Shepard said as he took his hand away from his COM unit.

Ashley approached the beacon slowly, squinting at the odd green light it was giving off. Without warning, the beacon flashed and a strange force began to pull Ashley in. Noticing this, Shepard rushed forward, wrapping his arms around Ashley's waist and threw her away from the beacon. Unfortunately, the beacon pulled him towards itself and he floated a few inches off of the ground, shaking as if he had a seizure.

He couldn't think, he couldn't hear, and all that he could see, was image after image rushing through his head, more and faster than he could handle. He felt his jaw clench and his fists tighten, as beacon exploded in front of him, and he descended into darkness.

Well Shepard has found the Prothean beacon and it has inconveniently exploded greaaaaat. Sorry if updates are coming a little slow, my brain is moving a little slowly as of late and I sometimes have to force these things out, so be patient. Next chapter we're going to the Citadel, I'm sure we're all looking forward to Udina's bitching (I was being sarcastic FYI) As always please review.


	9. Citadel

Chapter 9

Citadel

Author Note: Sorry about the wait, I just haven't gotten around to it. Part of it, is that I haven't been able to get on the Xbox to play mass effect and refresh my memory. My brother plays Call of Duty A LOT. I need to update my other story too, depressingly enough, this story already has more favorites and alerts than it.

Shepard let out a small groan as he clutched his head, sitting up in what he vaguely recognized as a bed. He felt slightly disoriented, as if all of his senses were less sensitive than usual. As he did so, he heard Ashley's voice as if she was talking to him from a great distance. "Dr. Chakwas, I think he's waking up."

As Shepard swung his legs off of the bed, he felt his senses return to normality. He noticed at this point that he was in the medical bay of the _Normandy_ "You had us worried for Shepard," Dr. Chakwas said, as she walked in front of Shepard "How are you feeling?"

"A little off balance," Shepard replied honestly "But otherwise I'm alright. How long was I out, where's Nihlus?"

"You were out for about fifteen hours," Chakwas said, looking at Shepard. "As for Nihlus, he's right over there." As she spoke, Chakwas pointed as the bed next to Shepard. As Shepard turned to look, he saw that Nihlus was indeed lying in the bed, his body hooked up to various pieces of life support.

"He suffered some pretty serious brain trauma in addition to a punctured lung. I took care of the lung, but it looks liker he took a nasty blow to the head, his skull actually suffered from some minor fracturing. For the moment, he's comatose, and I don't know when he'll wake up."

Shepard stared at the unconscious Spectre for a moment, before turning to face Chakwas again. "How exactly did I end up here?"

Chakwas frowned "I'm not exactly sure, the best I can some up with is that something happened with the beacon."

"It's my fault," said Ashley, who had been standing not to far from Shepard "I must have tripped some sort of motion sensor and you had to pull me out of the way."

"Don't blame yourself, you had no idea what would happen," Shepard said in a comforting voice as he looked at Ashley. A small smile slipped onto her face.

"As a matter of fact, we don't know if that is exactly what triggered the beacon," Chakwas said. "Unfortunately we're never going to get the chance to find out now."

"The beacon exploded, we're not exactly sure why, and knocked you out cold," Ashley explained. "Kaiden and I had to carry you back to the ship. While we were doing that, Taylor and Rebecca had to carry Nihlus here too."

"The two ODSTs?" Shepard asked "Are they onboard?"

"As a matter of fact, they are," Chakwas said. "But there's something I want to discuss with you. You're fine physically, but I've been picking up some strange beta waves in your brain. There was also a spike in your rapid eye movement, which normally happens during intense dreams."

"I'm not sure if dream is a proper word for it," Shepard. "I saw, I'm not sure, death, chaos, I'm not sure, everything sort of snowballed together until I couldn't make anything out of it."

"I should defiantly put this in my report," Chakwas said "It may prove to be...oh Captain Anderson."

Anderson had indeed entered the medical bay, and was walking towards Shepard's bed. "How's our XO holding up doctor?" he asked.

"He appears to be perfectly healthy, I'd say that he's going to be fine," Chakwas replied.

Anderson nodded "Glad to hear it. Shepard, I need to speak with you in private." Ashley and Chakwas both nodded as they exited the medical bay. "Sounds that beacon fit you pretty hard Shepard, are you sure that you're ok?"

"Yeah," Shepard said, rubbing his temples gently "I'll be fine."

Anderson let out a tired sigh. "I won't lie to you Shepard, things aren't looking well. We went to Eden Prime to get the beacon, what we got was a pile of scrap, a Geth attack and a comatose Spectre, not exactly what we were looking for. The Council isn't going to be happy about this."

"We did everything that we could to stop the Geth," Shepard said sternly "If we hadn't done anything the whole colony would have been destroyed."

"True," Anderson said "I'll stand behind you every step of the way, you're a God damn hero in my book. But the main problem is Saren, the Turian that Frost and Winters saw shooting Nihlus. He's a Spectre, one of the best, if he's fighting alongside the Geth, that means that he's defected, and a Spectre that's defected is nothing but trouble. Saren's even more dangerous than the average rouge Spectre. He hates Humans, he thinks we have too much power for someone so new to the galactic community."

"But he didn't go to Eden Prime just to kill Humans didn't he?" Shepard asked, standing up as he did. "He went there for the beacon."

"Unfortunately you're probably right," Anderson admitted. "You were there when it exploded, is there any chance that you saw anything of importance?"

"I saw, I'm not quite sure, synthetics attacking people, obliterating them," Shepard said, a slightly disturbed tone to his voice, as if what had saw had frightened him slightly. "But it's not like we can tell the Council this, what are we going to say, that I had a nightmare?"

"We don't know what that beacon did, and more likely than not, Saren did," Anderson said grimly. "We need to take him down, before he does any more damage, because if he has a say in the matter, he won't rest until every last Human is dead. But in order to do that we need to prove the Council that he's guilty and to revoke his Spectre status."

"Because if we don't the Council will see it as an act of war, and a war is something we'd rather avoid," Shepard said, a slightly frustrated tone in his voice.

"Exactly," Anderson said "I'll contact Udina and have him arrange a meeting with the Council. Kaiden and Ashley will accompany us since they were part of your team, and we'll also bring Taylor and Rebecca to testify. This is going to get ugly Shepard.

Two hours later, Ambassador Udina stood in the UNSC Embassy before the holograms of the Council. "This is and outrage!" he said, anger coursing through his voice "You can't ignore this, Saren launched an unprovoked attack on a Human colony. I demand retribution."

"You don't make demands to the Council Ambassador," the Turian Councilor said coldly.

"C-Sec is running an investigation for evidence to support your claims against Saren," the Asari Councilor said "We will discuss what the discover at the hearing." As the Asari Councilor finished her sentence, the holograms of the Council disappeared.

Letting out an angry sigh, Udina turned to face Anderson, Shepard and the ODSTs that they had brought with them. "Captain Anderson, I see you decided to bring half of your crew with you."

"It's just the ground team from Eden Prime," Anderson said "In case the Council asks for any eyewitness. Sounds like you managed to get an audience with the council."

"It wasn't easy, Udina said "The Council don't like it when their top agents are accused of treason."

"They're going to to open their eyes then," Shepard said sternly "Saren killed thousands of people on Eden Prime, and he needs to be stopped before he does any more damage."

"Settle down Commander, you've already done enough to sabotage your candidacy for the Spectres," Udina said coldly "Eden Prime was to prove that you were capable, instead the beacon was destroyed and Nihlus was put in a hospital."

"That's all you care about?" Anderson said angrily "This bigger than the Spectres, this is about exposing Saren, and making sure that he doesn't cause any more damage."

"Then we had better hope the C-Sec investigation turns up something useful," Udina said stonily. "Anderson, come with me, we need to discuss a couple of things before the hearing. Shepard you and the others meet us at the Citadel Tower, I'll make sure that you get in." Both Anderson and Udina exited the Embassy, muttering an indistinct conversation.

"He seems like a nice guy," Taylor said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Pretty much," Ashley said "That's why I can't stand politicians."

"We had better get up to that tower," Rebecca said "Taylor and I saw that son of a bitch shoot Nihlus, if they don't do something about it even if we tell them that, then they're just being ignorant to the point that it's going to cause extreme harm."

"I wouldn't hold you're breath," Kaiden said "From what I've heard the Council is usually slow to act on big decisions, they only act if they've got evidence where there is 0% chance of it being false."

"We'll have to take our chances with what we have," Shepard said as they exited the Embassy, heading for the nearby elevator. As they did, they passed the RSN embassy, which was oddly deserted. "They probably went up to watch the trial," Shepard said, as he and the others entered the elevator, as it closes and slowly began to rose.

"I'm taking a wild guess that the Sangheili don't like Saren either?" Ashley asked.

"The Sangheili don't like Spectres period," Taylor said "They don't like the idea of someone having that much power and answering to no one. They think that someone with that much power will more likely than not abuse it, and when you consider the situation we're in right now, they have a point."

"Still they do respect the Spectres that do their job properly," Kaiden said. "I heard an Asari Spectre helped a SpecOp team take out a nest of pretty stubborn Batarian pirates."

"As long as they stay in line, the Sangheili don't have any problems with Spectres in their territory," Rebecca said "But I imagine all RSN soldiers have shoot on sight orders if they so much as loiter."

As the elevator stopped at the top of the Citadel tower, all five ODSTs stepped off of the elevator. As they walked forward, they saw two Turians arguing. "Saren is hiding something, give me more time. Stall them," one of the Turians said.

"Stall the Council?" the other Turian said in a disbelieving voice "Don't be ridiculous, you're investigation is over Garrus." As he finished his sentence, the second Turian walked away. Garrus let out a frustrated groan, before turning around and noticing Shepard and his group.

"Command Shepard," he said formally "Garrus Vakarian, I was the C-Sec officer in charge of the investigation of Saren."

"I get the feeling from the way you were talking to that other Turian you don't like Saren very much," Shepard said, gesturing towards the still visible Turian, his back to Shepard.

"He's hiding something," Garrus said "Like you Humans say, I've got a feeling in my gut about this. But he's a Spectre, if he so much as breaths on something it's classified. I couldn't get anything on him."

"Your gut feeling is dead on," Taylor said "I saw Saren put a bullet in Nihlus' lung."

"I knew it!" Garrus said angrily "I hope the Council listens to you. Speaking of the Council I think they're waiting for you. Good luck, I hope you don't need it," he said as the ODSTs walked towards and up the stairs leading to the Council chambers.

After a few minutes of walking upwards, they found Anderson standing outside of the chamber. "The hearing has already stared come on," he said grimly as he walked into the chamber, the ODSTs following him.

As they entered the chamber, they found Udina standing before the Council, while a massive hologram of Saren was projected from a device mounted on the wall. "The Geth attack is a matter of concern," the Salarian Councilor said "But there is no proof that Saren was involved in any way shape or form."

"The C-Sec investigation found no evidence to support your accusations," the Turian Councilor said.

"These two soldiers saw Saren attempt to kill Nihlus in cold blood," Udina said, pointing at Taylor and Rebecca. "Is that the Turian you saw on Eden Prime?" he asked, gesturing at the hologram of Saren.

Both Rebecca and Taylor looked at the hologram for a second, before Rebecca nodded and Taylor said "Yeah that's him."

The Salarian Councilor seemed unfazed, the Turian Councilor even looked slightly bored. The Asari Councilor however, looked slightly uncomfortable, and maybe even a little worried. "You are certain that Saren was the Turian that you saw?" she asked.

"No offense," Taylor said "But you don't exactly forget a face like his."

"I am offended by these accusations," Saren said "Nihlus was a close friend of mine."

"Then why did you put him in the hospital?" Anderson asked coldly. Upon the _Normandy_ arriving at the Citadel, Nihlus had been transferred to a more accommodating medical facility.

"Anderson, I can not help but notice that every time Humanity makes charges against me, you seem to be at the forefront," Saren said, in an obviously mocking tone. "These accusations carry no weight, the testimonies of two traumatized soldiers hardly qualify as evidence."

"I'm not so sure about that," the Asari Council said "Judging by their armor they are Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, and from what I've heard about them they are above your average soldier. They aren't the type to be easily traumatized."

"You don't actually believe them do you?" the Turian Councilor asked, looking at the Asari next to him "For all we know they started this whole facade just to cover up the failed mission on Eden Prime."

"While this is interesting Councilor," the Salarian Councilor said "It is still insufficient evidence to incriminate one of our top agents." Turning to face the Humans, he asked "Is there anything else you would like to add?"

Shepard was about to open his mouth and talk about the vision he had when he reconsidered. While it might have been important, it didn't actually incriminate Saren in any way. Also, it might be for the best if Saren didn't know what he had saw, he might know what it meant. "Winters and Frost are good stable soldiers, if you refuse to listen to them, then I don't know what to say."

The Asari Councilor glanced at the Turian Councilor, who shook is head, and then at the Salarian Councilor, who mirrored his move. Seeing that she was outvoted, the Asari Councilor restrained a sigh, and said nothing. "The Council has found to evidence to link Saren to what happened on Eden Prime," the Salarian Councilor said. "Ambassador your petition to have him removed from the Spectres is denied. This meeting is adjourned."

The faintest of smiles made it's way across Saren's face as his hologram disappeared, and the Councilors stepped away from their podiums. The ODSTs and Anderson walked away, grim looks on their faces. Udina joined them after a few seconds. "It was a mistake to bring you in Captain," the Ambassador said "It made the Council question our motives, you and Saren have too much history."

"Judging by the way you are all standing outside of the Council Chamber," said a calm strong voice "We are too late for the hearing." Everyone turned around and saw three Sangheili approaching them. The middle one was easily recognizable as Rtas 'Vadum. Shipmaster clad in golden armor was at his right, and a Ranger clad in black, wearing a Combat Harness and an anti-gravity pack to his left. They were all wearing the new version of the Combat Harness, which had a white, see-through visor cover the right eye to act as a HUD.

"Rtas," Anderson said, as the Sangheili approached them "Yes, the hearing is over, Saren was found as not guilty."

"Typical," the Shipmaster said, in a slightly cold voice "They are willing to let their Spectres be entrusted with their security, but when they go to far, they turn a blind eye."

"I'm sorry," Anderson said "But I don't believe that I'm familiar with you."

The Shipmaster nodded his head "Where are my manners? I am Ramos 'Mortam Shipmaster of the _Swift Blade_. This is my younger brother," he said, gesturing to the Ranger "Demas 'Mortam. I am in command of all RSN soldiers stationed on the Citadel, which act as security, my brother included. We were going accompany the Ambassador to the hearing, but apparently we are too late for that."

"We need to find evidence that proves to the Council beyond a doubt that Saren is guilty," Udina said "How we do that however, is not going to be easy."

"What about that C-Sec officer Garrus?" Kaiden asked "It sounded like he was about to unearth something big on Saren."

"I have a contact inside of C-Sec that can put you in touch with him," Udina said "His name his Harken."

"Harken's a waste of time," Anderson said dismissively "He was fired a month ago for drinking on the job. There's a Volus named Barla Von on the Citadel that might be able to help us. He's an agent for the Shadow Broker."

"The what now?" Taylor asked, looking confused.

"The Shadow Broker is shrouded in mystery," Anderson said "Little is known about him, or her, or they. All we know is that the Shadow Broker operates through agents, distributing information to whoever purchases it. Barla Von might be able to get you something on Saren."

"The wise course of action would be to pursue both," Demas said. "I request to accompany you," he glanced at his older brother "If it is appropriate that is."

"I have no objection to this," Ramos said "You may accompany the Commander until it is more prudent that you be needed elsewhere."

"Alright," Shepard said "Ashely, Kaiden, you'll come with me to see Harken. Demas, take Taylor and Rebecca and go find Barla Von. Contact me if you find out anything that can be used against Saren." Everyone nodded as they separated, Shepard, Ashley and Kaiden heading in one direction, while Demas, Taylor and Rebecca went another way.

Author Note It felt it kind of odd the way the Council acts towards you in the game, I can understand the way the Turian treats you, and sort of the Salarian, but I thought Asari were supposed to be masters of diplomacy. Don't expect their reactions to be 100% what they are in game, who knows, you might even find it to be a nice change


	10. Gathering

Chapter 10

Gathering

Author's Note: Just so you know, I have not abandoned Fighting For a Purpose, I am just staking a short break from it to clear my head. I'll be back in a week, two tops. Another thing, I have received a review or two, from people claiming that the UNSC should have threatened to retaliate if the Council did not investigate Saren further. One seemed like an honest opinion (doctor anthony) while the other seemed more like flaming/ a troll (mikefrom belgium) no offense. Let me clear this up, the Humans are trying to prevent a war, not start one, they're trying to establish good terms with the Council, not set up a powder keg that could result in war. I don't know about you, but I rather be on good terms with the collective of aliens boarding our territory, instead of in the middle of a Mexican standoff. Humans aren't the kind of species that go around looking for trouble, and declare a full blown war over every single thing that goes wrong, that's what Jiralhanae do. I got a couple complaints about this when I wrote about the First Contact War, saying that Humanity should have kept fighting the Turians. No offense, but it seems like some of my reviewers are looking for a story where the UNSC decimates the Council and becomes the dominant species in the galaxy (Kind of what Cerberus wants, unfortunate implications there) If you are looking for that, let me give you some advice, stop reading this story right now, I am not going to, nor will I ever, write a story like that. Humans are not war hawks, and we try to avoid war at all cost, because war is pure an utter chaos that breeds death misery and destruction, and I am never going to write about the UNSC going around and declaring wars so easily. The First Contact War was a misunderstanding, why should a war be declared on an entire species for the incompetence of a handful of leaders? Also Saren was acting on his own and the entire Council should not be to blame, and maybe the reason the Council was unwilling to see the truth was that they were unwilling to sacrifice one of their own to the new guy (a little stupid of them, but I imagine we would do the same thing). Try and see things from their point of view, and not just your own.

Wow that rant went longer than expected. For those of you that these rant was not directed at I apologize, and for those who it was, I'm sorry but this story is me projecting my voice across the internet, about how I think this would work. I respect your opinion, but I'm writing this story the way I see fit, and not the way you see fit, if you disagree, well, too bad. Alright, enjoy.

"This is where we can find Barla Von right?" Taylor asked as he, Rebecca and Demas walked through the finical district of the Citadel.

"Yes," Demas said, as he stopped outside an office door, and pressed the button that opened it. "I have made many rounds through this area, acting as security for RSN diplomats and businessmen." As the three walked in, they saw a Volus standing behind a desk, typing on a keyboard.

"Ah," Barla said, looking up at his guests "Greetings Earth and Sangheilos clan, how can I assist you?"

"We were told that you were and agent for the Shadow Broker," Rebecca said, looking at Barla "Is that true?"

"Yes," Barla said cautiously "I'll have you know my dealings break no laws, Council, UNSC or RSN. So if you are here to prosecute me, you are wasting my time."

"We're not here for anything like that," Taylor said "As a matter of fact, you could say that we're here to buy."

"Oh really?" Barla said in an interested voice "What did you have in mind?"

"Saren is a threat to the UNSC, and by extension the RSN," Demas said calmly. "We would prefer to settle this matter without armed engagements with the Council. Is there any chance that you would have anything that could help us?"

"Hm," said Barla "You have expensive taste, normally this kind of information would cost an arm and a leg. However today is your lucky day, and due to unique circumstances, I am willing to give you some information for free."

"Just like that?" Rebecca asked "You're giving us extremely valuable information without asking for anything in return?"

"Oh, it's a very worth while investment for me you see," Barla said "You see, Saren and the Shadow Broken aren't exactly on good terms right now. Saren and the Shadow Broker used to have quite a healthy relationship, but recently Saren has turned on the Shadow Broker."

"Does this guy suffer from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder or something?" Taylor asked in an exasperated voice.

"Quite," Barla said "As you might imagine, the Shadow Broker is quite upset about this. The whole thing doesn't make much sense when you think about it, Saren isn't stupid, he wouldn't have turned on the Shadow Broker unless there was something much greater to be gained."

"That's why it's imperative that we take him down now," Demas said, a hint of impatience in his voice.

"Yes," Barla said "From what I've heard, Saren has an agent on the Citadel, a small crime lord named Fist. Fist used to work for the Shadow Broker, but left him for Saren. The Shadow Broken is very unhappy about this, and hired a Krogan bounty hunter named Wrex to kill him. Wrex is currently at C-Sec headquarters, if you hurry you'll probably be able to catch him before he leaves."

"Why would he be at the C-Sec headquarters?" Demas asked "It hardly seems like a smart place to be."

"I doubt the visit was voluntary," Barla said "Krogan don't exactly have an admirable reputation on the Citadel. Most likely they hauled him in for questioning, probably because he had an arsenal on his back."

"He might prove to be a valuable ally," Taylor said "Krogan are usually good fighters."

Demas nodded "I agree," he said as he turned to face Barla. "I thank you for this knowledge, but we must depart."

"Be careful," Barla said as Demas, Taylor and Rebecca turned to leave. "Wrex plans to kill Fist, I doubt that he plans on leaving him alive long enough for you to get information out of him.

"Amazing," Ashley said in a dry voice, as she Kaiden and Shepard entered Chora's Den. "Humanity's come so far, and made it this far, and we are surrounded by men drooling over half naked girls." Ashley shook her head "We're so similar in some ways that it's almost sad."

"Aliens aren't that different from Humans," Kaiden said "They've got their saints and sinners just like we do."

"I never said that we were different Kaiden," Ashley said, smiling slyly. "Or did you automatically assume that because my grand-father was the commander of the Marine garrison on Shanxi, I'm xenophobic?"

"Um," Kaiden said nervously "That's not it at all."

Ashley let out a short laugh "Of course it isn't."

Shepard resisted the urge to smile as he approached a table where a single man was sitting, drinking some sort of alcohol.

"UNSC," he said dryly, spotting the ODSTs approaching him. "I could have been a Marine you now, instead I joined C-Sec. Biggest God damn mistake of my life.

"You Harkin?" Shepard asked, stopping in front of the man.

"Yeah," he said gruffly, taking a swig of his drink. "What do you want?"

"I was told that you could help me find a C-Sec officer called Garrus," Shepard said, spotting a couple of empty glassed on Harkin's table, and wondering how intoxicated the man was.

"Garrus huh?" Harkin said "Anderson put you up to this didn't he? Before I tell you where he is I gotta ask you something. Did the Captain let you in on the secret."

"We just need to know where Garrus is," Ashley said harshly.

"Ah, but it all comes together," Harkin said "Captain was a candidate for the Spectres, but he blew it big time. Lot of civilians ended up dead, and he said that Saren set him up."

"That's nice," Kaiden said, in an uninterested voice "Now, you were telling us where Garrus is."

"Last I heard he was nosing around Dr. Michel's office, her clinic is on the opposite end of the Wards," Harkin said.

"We'll be going now," Shepard said, as he Ashley and Kaiden walked away, not paying heed to Harkin.

"What an ass," Ashley said in a disgusted voice. "If he thinks he could've made it as a Marine, he's got another thing coming."

"You think that he was telling the truth about Anderson being a candidate for the Spectres?" Kaiden asked, looking at Shepard "At that he messed up his mission."

"Maybe," Shepard said "Udina did say that Anderson had a history with Saren, maybe that's what he meant. Still it's not important," he said as they approached a Citadel Rapid Transit station. "What is important is that we find Garrus and see what he knows."

"This doesn't look like a police headquarters," Rebecca said as they descended into the C-Sec academy. "More like a military HQ."

"They take security seriously around here," Taylor said, as the rounded the corner, to see three armed officers surrounding a Krogan with a vicious scar on his face. "That Wrex?" he asked as they approached the small group.

"I don't see any other Krogan around here," Demas said as they drew close enough to hear what was being said.

"Wrex," said a Human C-Sec officer with a grim look on his face "Several people have reported you making threats about Fist in his bar. Stay away from there or we will be forced to act. This is your only warning Wrex."

"I don't take orders from you," Wrex said plainly "And you should know, I will kill Fist." It wasn't a threat, it was more like Wrex was stating a fact.

"Do you want me to arrest you?" the C-Sec officer asked angrily.

Wrex chuckled "I want you to try," he said, leaning forward and challenging the officer. When the officer did not reply, Wrex began to walk away when he spotted Demas, Taylor and Rebecca watching him. Walking towards them, he stopped in front of Demas and bluntly said "What do you want?"

"I'm Demas 'Mortam," Demas said "Me and my associates here are working under Commander Shepard to bring down Saren. Barla Von pointed us to you, he said that you could help us."

"Hm, wise man," Wrex said "We may have a common goal in mind. I've been hired to kill Fist, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to leave him alive for a few minutes to squeeze some information out of him."

"You seem a little eager to cooperate," Taylor remarked, a little taken a back that someone so massive was so willing to work with them."

"My people have a saying," Wrex said "Seek out the enemy of your enemy and you shall find a friend." Demas extended his hand, and Wrex grasped it and shook it. "I've got no love for Saren, I'll help you take him down."

"Glad to hear it," Demas said, as he approached a nearby Rapid Transit Terminal. "We're going to Chora's Den, I'd like Fist to answer a couple of questions for me.

"Why do you think Garrus is doing snooping around here Shepard?" Ashely asked as the approached Dr. Michel's clinic.

"Who knows?" he replied as he pressed the button that opened the door. "Maybe he saw someone suspicious around here, and he's investigating why happened to..." Shepard broke off. Inside the clinic, Dr. Michel was surrounded by three armed men, and they didn't look too friendly. Out of the corner of his eye, Shepard spotted Garrus crouching behind a low wall, a pistol in his hands. The thugs appeared to not have noticed him."

"I didn't tell anyone, I swear to God," Michel pleased with the thugs, as Shepard, Ashley and Kaiden all unholstered their weapons.

"That was smart doc," one of the thugs said, leered at her, "Now if Garrus comes along you stay smart and...Who the Hell are you?" he shouted, having noticed Shepard and the others, as he raised his pistol. With amazing reflexes, Garrus leaned around the wall he had been crouching behind and fired a single shot. The bullet tore through one of the thug's brains, killing him instantly.

Taking advantage to the momentarily stunned thugs, the ODSTs opened fire, causing the thugs to quickly collapse underneath the fire. "Perfect timing Shepard," he said as he holstered the pistol "You managed to distract them so I could get a clear shot at him."

"Glad that I could help," Shepard said warmly before turning to face Michel. "Are you alright doctor?" he asked.

"Yes," Michel replied weakly, clutching at her chest "I think so."

"What were those men doing here?" Ashley asked, looking at the doctor.

"They...they wanted to keep me from telling anyone about the Quarian," the Michel said.

"I'm sorry, what Quarian?" Kaiden asked.

"Not too long ago, a Quarian came in here, she had been shot. She refused to tell me who did it, but she did say that she needed to get to the RSN embassy. She said she had something big, something that people would be wiling to kill her to make sure that it stayed a secret."

"It could be evidence of Saren's guilt," Garrus said as he glanced at Shepard.

"Where is the Quarian now?" Shepard asked.

"I don't know," Michel said, shaking her head. "She said that she was going to meet up with a Major Domo named Iasa 'Cirate and she would make sure that she was safe. But judging by the way those men found me, they're tracking her down, most likely they'll try to kill her and Iasa."

"Do you have any idea where they are?" Shepard asked.

Michel shook her head "I'm sorry, she refused to tell me, and the second the Medi-gel did it's job, she left."

"Thank you for your help doctor," Garrus said before turning to face Shepard. "Shepard if you don't mind, I'd like to accompany you. Saren is a disgrace and a traitor to my people, and if I can help you take that bastard down, just say the word."

"You had me at if you don't mind," Shepard said, as he extended his arm, and Garrus shook it. "Looks like we might have hit a dead end," Shepard said as he raised his hand to his COM unit. "I'm going to see if the others had any luck with Barla Von. Demas are you there? We hit a dead end, we know that there is a Quarian with vital information that might be about Saren, meeting with a Major Domo called Iasa 'Cirate. Did you find out anything useful, or where we can find those two?"

"Shepard, we are a little busy at the moment," Demas replied.

"Why, what are you doing?" Shepard asked.

In Chora's Den, Demas grimaced slightly as he answered Shepard. "Oh nothing that important Shepard, we're just trying to not get killed by every last employee in Chora's Den," he said as he used his anti-gravity pack to propel himself to the center platform on Chora's Den.

"What?" Shepard shouted through the COM lines "Demas what's going on?"

"I'll explain later," Demas hissed as he fired his plasma rifle at one of the thugs on the bar, which had aimed his gun at him. The thug fell to the floor, dead. "If I hear anything about a Quarian or Iasa 'Cirate I'll let you know." Demas took his free hand away from his COM unit and drew his other plasma rifle.

"Jesus how many men does Fist have?" Taylor shouted in frustration, launching a Warp at one of Fist's men, causing the man to collapse in pain. A single bullet from Taylor's DMR finished him off.

"Less talking, more killing!" Wrex roared, as he gunned down three men with his assault rifle.

"Taylor I'd never through that I say this, but listen to the Krogan!" Rebecca shouted as she blew the chest of one of Fist's men open with her shotgun. "I think that's all of them," she said as Demas jumped down from the platform.

"Fist is most likely hiding in the back room," Wrex said as the four of them walked through the door that lead to said room. As they did, two men with pistols stood in their way.

"Get back!" one of them shouted.

"Warehouse workers," Taylor muttered "We must have killed all of the real guards."

"If I were you I'd leave this place," Demas said "We're are going to have a little chat with Fist, and it would be a shame if two people with full futures ahead of them, died to protect a man that has a sealed one."

The workers hesitated, then lowered their pistols. "Ok," one of them said "I never liked Fist anyway."

"Come on man," the other one said as they walked by the others "I hear they're hiring at the Flux.

"Never would've thought of that," Wrex said, looking at Demas.

"We don't like to always use our guns as a first response," Rebecca said, as they moved forward, into Fist's private office.

At first it appeared deserted, but then Fist stood up from behind the desk, aiming an assault rifle at the intruders. Before he could fire it, Rebecca had fired her shotgun under the desk, hitting Fist's legs and causing him to fall over in pain. "Now then," Demas said, as he holstered his plasma rifles, reached around the desk, and grabbed Fist by the neck. "I do believe that you have some information that we are interested in."

"I don't know where the Quarian is I swear," Fist said in a panicked voice.

"What!" Demas shouted "The Quarian, you know about her?" Fist looked like he regretted ever opening his mouth. "Where is she?" Demas asked, venom thick in his voice.

"I don't know," Fist managed to croak out.

"Funny," Demas said, as he took an energy sword from his belt and activated it, holding it up to Fist's throat "I don't believe you."

"Alright, alright," Fist said in a panicked voice "I don't know where she is now, but I do know where she's going to be. I managed to find out through one of my contacts where she's supposed to be meeting the Sangheili that's supposed to take her to the RSN embassy. Except when they get there, they're going to find Saren's men waiting for them."

"You set up an assassination?" Demas asked in an enraged voice.

"Oh god please don't kill me man," Fist begged "They're meeting here on the Wards, in the back ally near the markets, right now as a matter of fact."

"Fine," Demas said, as he dropped Fist, deactivating his energy sword as he did so.

'You're..." Fist said hesitantly "You're not going to kill me?"

"No," Demas said "I'm not." Fist let out a sigh of relief. With lighting reflexes, Wrex drew his pistol and fired a single shot at Fist's head, killing him instantly. "But he is," Demas said looking at Fist's body.

"Shepard," Demas said, raising his hand to his COM unit "The Quarian is meeting with Iasa in the ally behind the markets down her on the wards. But Fist stationed men there to take them out, we're heading there now, and I suggest that you do the same."

As he lowered his hand, he glanced at Rebecca, Taylor, and Wrex. "Let's move!" he shouted.

Tali walked forward cautiously, one hand resting firmly on the handle of her shotgun, as she scanned the hallway, looking for a Sangheili clad in red armor. Spotting one at the end of the ally, she walked forward slowly, stopping in front of the Sangheili.

"Are you Iasa 'Cirate?" Tali asked, looking at the Major Domo. The Sangheili turned to face Tali and nodded. Iasa had traits seen in most Sangheili females. She was much more slender, as a result she would be quicker than males, although not as strong. Because of this, females tended to exercise their speed to their full potential, most noticeable when they used their energy swords.

"You are Tali'Zorah, correct?" Iasa asked quietly. Tali nodded. "I was told that you had acquired vital information, may I ask what it is?"

"It's evidence that proves that Saren attacked that UNSC colony," Tali said softly, not wanting to be over heard.

Iasa's eyebrows raised in obvious shock. "Saying that this data is vital is an understatement," she said, looking around to make sure that they were not being overheard. "I can see why you wanted to get it to the ambassador. We should go now, I feel exposed standing out here with such vital intelligence. "Once the ambassador has this we can..." Iasa broke off, as she saw a Turian approaching them. "Curses," she swore, as she glanced to the other side and saw two armored Salarians approaching them. "They must have anticipated that we would be meeting here." Iasa glanced at the shotgun on Tali's back, her hand still gripped around the handle. "Think you can take the Turian?" Iasa asked.

"I'm not completely helpless," Tali replied.

Iasa smiled "I know," she said "Wait until I make my move."

As the Turian approached them, the Salarians intentionally keeping some distance, he spoke to Iasa. "Pardon me, but I couldn't help but overhear you, and I do believe that you have some information that doesn't belong to you. If you would be so kind as to..." the Turian was interrupted, as Iasa darted towards the Salarians, activating an energy sword in both hands. As she shot towards them, she swung both blades, severing the Salarians in half at the chest.

The Turian fumbled with his rifle, but before he could level it, Tali had drawn her shot gun and fired it at the Turian's face. The Turian stumbled back as his kinetic barriers collapsed, and Tali pumped her shotgun, firing another burst at the Turian, killing him. "Well, that was easy than I expected," Tali said as she holstered her shotgun and Iasa deactivated her energy swords.

"You aim was steady, a useful trait in battle," Iasa said "Most non soldiers would be shaking at the very best."

"Well, I've already been shot at," Tali said "I guess I've gotten used to it."

Iasa nodded "Very well, I suggest that we get out of here before more assassins arrive." As they began to walk away from the corpses, there was a large commotion from around the corner, and three ODSTs and a Turian in C-Sec armor came blazing around the corner.

"Are you two alright," the middle ODST asked, slightly out of breath. "We heard that someone had arranged an attack on you."

"We are fine," Iasa replied "They need more than a couple of untrained thugs to kill RSN personal."

"The data's fine too," Tali said "It proves that Saren was behind the attack on Eden Prime."

"Good," the man in the middle said as he raised his hand to his COM unit "Demas, they're alright, they were able to take care of the assassins, we'll meet you at the Embassy."

Author's Note. I kind of crammed a lot in there, but I decided I didn't want to do three or four chapters of running around the Citadel. Don't expect other chapters to be this long, I highly doubt that will happen.

Hey I have a question, I'm thinking about buying Starcraft 2 can anyone give me a recommendation on that, I'm a complete newcomer to the Starcraft series so I have no idea what do to about it.


	11. Spectre

Chapter 11

Spectre

Time to wrap the events of the Citadel, make Shepard a Spectre and send him and his crew on their way. By the way, does anyone have any requests for side quests that I should include in this story? If so put them in a review or a private message. Please note that just because you ask for it does not mean that you will get it, this is just to give me some ideas that I might carry out.

Shepard walked into the UNSC's Embassy, his group, Demas and his group, Tali and Iasa right behind him. Udina, who was inside the Embassy, sighed as he turned around to face them. "You're not making this easy Shepard," he said "You can't just go around shooting up..." he broke off when he saw exactly how many people were standing behind Shepard. "Shepard, may I ask why you have a small army with you?"

"Long story," Shepard said dismissively, "The important thing, is that Tali here," he gestured towards the Quarian "Has got evidence to take down Saren."

"You might want to start at the beginning ms..." Anderson said "What did you say her name was again?"

"My name is Tali'Zorah," Tali said.

"If you don't mind me asking," Anderson said "We don't see that many Quarians off of Sanctuary, would you mind telling us what brought you do the Citadel." Anderson's voice wasn't accusatory, merely curious.

"To be honest, I'm on leave," Tali replied, almost sheepishly. "Normally I would be on my Pilgrimage, but since the RSN gave us a planet, that practice has almost been forgotten. I thought I would look around and see if I could find anything useful to buy to help with the colonization, after all, RSN doesn't use Mass Effect technology that much."

"To be honest, we don't use it that much either," Shepard said "ODSTs get omni-tools, and from what I've heard Sangheili soldiers get it too, but we prefer to develop our own technology. Getting back on topic, what kind of evidence do you have, and how did you get it?"

"While on my way here, I heard rumors of Geth beyond the veil, and curiosity got the better of me," Tali said "I was able to track a Geth to an uncharted planet, then I disabled it and removed it's memory core."

"I thought Geth fired their memory cores when they were killed, as a defense mechanism," Anderson said, the faintest bit of confusion on his face.

"Most of the time that is true," Tali said "But if you're fast enough, and a little lucky, you can salvage bits of data. The Geth did a thorough job of wiping it's memory, but I managed to salvage something from it's audio logs." As she spoke, she activated her omni-tool, pressing a button and playing a recording.

"Eden Prime was a major victory," said a voice that was recognizable as Saren's "The beacon has brought us one step closer to finding the Conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers," said another voice, this one female, although it was not apparent who it belonged to.

"That voice defiantly, belonged to Saren," Udina said "But I don't recognize the other one, the one talking about the Reapers."

"What are the Reapers?" Shepard asked "And while we're at it, what's the Conduit?"

"According to the memory core, the Reapers were a hyper-advanced machine race, that hunted the Protheans to extinction and then vanished," Tali said "That's what the Geth believed anyway.

"Sounds a little far-fetched," Udina said crossing his arms.

Something in Shepard's mind clicked "The vision I had on Eden Prime," he said as he rubbed his forehead "It all makes sense now, it was the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers."

"From what I can see," Tali said "The Geth worship the Reapers as gods and believe that Saren knows how to bring them back. I have no idea if it's true or if Saren is just playing them though."

"This might be a little much for the Council to take in all at once," Shepard said, looking at Anderson "They might just ignore us."

"That may be true about the Reapers," Anderson said "But they can't deny that Saren had a hand in Eden Prime." The faintest of smiles spread across Anderson's face as he said "We've got him."

"The Captain's right," Udina said "We need to get this to the Council as fast as we can."

"What about Tali?" Ashley asked concern in here voice "I doubt Saren will be that happy that she helped blow his cover."

"You saw what I did the ally Commander," she said, looking at Shepard "I'm not helpless. Let me come with you."

"Allow me to accompany you as well," Iasa said "If Saren thinks he can strike at the RSN and it's allies and just walk aware he is sadly mistaken."

Shepard nodded "I'll take all of the help that I can get." Both Iasa and Tali nodded at Shepard.

"The Captain and I will arrange things with the Council, meet us at the tower," Udina said as he and Anderson exited the Embassy. "Do me a favor Shepard, and don't bring your platoon with you," Udina said as he left "We wouldn't want the Council to think that we're trying to assassinate them."

Shepard nodded as he left the Embassy. "So," Kaiden said, clearly trying to break the tension "Anyone have a pack of cards?"

As Shepard stepped off of the Rapid Transit and began to walk towards the Council chamber, he found Anderson waiting for him outside. "That was quick," he said as Shepard approached him "Come on, Udina is presenting Tali's evidence to the Council."

As Anderson and Shepard walked into the Council chamber, they heard the recording of Saren playing. As the entered the chamber, they saw Rtas and Ramos standing off to the side, while Udina was playing the evidence. "You wanted proof, there it is," Udina said, a bit of arrogance present in his voice.

"This evidence is irrefutable," the Turian Councilor said angrily "Saren will be stripped of his Spectre status and all efforts will be to bring him in."

"I recognize the other voice," the Asari Councilor said, a strange tone to her voice. It sounded like it was somewhere between disbelief and fear. "Matriarch Benezia."

"You know her?" Shepard asked.

The Asari Councilor nodded "We knew each other for a brief time before we parted ways. I have not seen her in over a century or heard much about her. She's a powerful biotic and she has many followers," she shook her head "She will be a formidable ally for Saren."

"I'm interested about these Reapers," The Salarian Councilor said, apparently obviously to the conflicted feelings of the Asari Councilor, "What do you know about them?"

"Apparently the Geth believe that the Reapers were a sapient race of machines that wiped out of the Protheans before the disappeared," Anderson said.

"The Geth worship them like gods, and apparently they think that Saren is the prophet for their return," Shepard said.

"If this is true then the Conduit most likely holds a key position in their return," Anderson said grimly. "Most likely that's why he attacked Eden Prime."

"Do we even know what is is?" The Salarian councilor asked curiously.

"Not yet," Shepard said "But is Saren's looking for it because he thinks it can help bring the Reapers back, it probably isn't going to be anything good."

"Listen to yourself," the Turian Councilor said, annoyance in his voice "Saren wants to bring back a race of machines that wiped out all life in the galaxy, it's impossible. If they were real, we would have found a trace of their existence."

"Really?" Rtas asked, speaking for the first time since the meeting began "You are certain of that?

"Have you ever heard of a race that even posed the technology that made them capable of wiping all life in the galaxy?" the Turian Councilor asked sternly.

Rtas shook his head "You have no idea," he said.

"What?" asked the Turian Councilor, but Rtas said nothing. Shepard and Anderson glanced at Rtas. All information regarding Halo and the Flood were among the most carefully guarded secrets of the UNSC and the RSN, in fact only a handful of the Council races even knew of the Forerunners, and fewer still believed in them. Only military personal were allowed to known, and revealing said secrets was punishable by death. The main reason for this was to prevent a mass panic and to prevent experiments on both that could end in disaster. If either a Halo or the Flood were encountered, the Hood Protocol was to be carried out, which stated that both were to be destroyed by any means necessary.

Glancing back at the Turian Councilor, Shepard spoke. "Don't be so quick to say it's impossible Councilor," he said "Space is vast, they could be hiding anywhere, unless you've explored every last planet in the Milky Way, we can't be sure of what is out there."

"The Reapers are obviously a myth Commander," the Salarian Councilor said "A convent lie that Saren is using to bend the Geth to his will."

"Saren is a rouge Spectre on the run for his life, not a fanatic about to kill every last thing in the galaxy," the Turian Councilor said. "We've stripped him of his position and he has lost all of his influence."

"But he's still out there," Udina said angrily "He's your agent, send in your fleets to track him down."

"A fleet can not track down one man," the Salarian Councilor said bluntly.

"Perhaps there is another way," the Asari Councilor said, eyeing Shepard thoughtfully. "A way that would not require the contribution of thousands."

"No," the Turian Councilor said dismissively, "It's too soon, Humanity has not been a part of the galactic community long enough to be prepared for the responsibilities of joining the Spectres."

"With all due respect Councilor," said a voice "I have to disagree with you on that one." Everyone turned towards the entrance of the chamber, to see non other than Nihlus entering the chamber, with no evidence that he had been wounded besides the crutch he was using. "Commander Shepard is like no other soldier I've ever seen, if anyone else had been in his place, Eden Prime would have been destroyed, and Saren would still be a Spectre."

"Up on your feet already?" Shepard said, looking at Nihlus and grinning slightly.

"Spectres are hard to kill," Nihlus said "Another reason why you're a good candidate."

The Asari Councilor glanced at the Salarian Councilor, and then at the Turian Councilor who mirrored his moves, although rather reluctantly. "Commander Shepard," she said "It is the decision of this Council that you join the Special Tactics and Reconnoissance branch of the Citadel."

"We're sending you after Saren," the Salarian Councilor said "He's is highly dangerous and you are authorized to stop him by any means necessary."

Shepard nodded "I'll get the job done."

"This meeting of the Council is adjourned," he Asari Councilor said as everyone exited the chamber.

"I'd go with you Shepard," Nihlus said as the left the chamber "But I'm supposed to take it easy. Besides I'm sure you'll be able to handle the situation just fine on your own. I'll see you around," he said as he limped off.

"I believe this one is better off in Human hands," Ramos said to Rtas, who nodded in agreement. Ramos glanced at Shepard, smiling as he spoke. "Take care of my brother," and with that, both of the Sangheili left.

"We've got I lot to do Shepard," Udina said "You're going to need a ship and crew if you want to hunt down Saren."

"I think I can solve that one," Anderson said "As of now, I am stepping down as Captain of the_ Normandy_, and I'm turning command over to Shepard. She's quick, quite, and you know the crew, perfect ship for a Spectre."

Shepard nodded "I will sir. Do we have any leads on Saren?"

"A couple," Anderson said, "We have a colony out in the Feros, system. A largely underdeveloped research colony that's showing poor results. The UNSC was actually considering abandoning it when we lost contact, it's probably worth checking out. Also, there have been sightings of Geth around Noveria."

"There's also one more lead," Udina said "They other voice on the recording, Matriarch Benezia, she has a daughter, a scientist who specializes in the Protheans. We don't know if she's in on her mothers plan or not, we're inclined to believe that she isn't, since we've received no evidence that they have spoken in years. Still she may be helpful, her name is Dr. Liara T'Soni. Last we heard she was on a dig in the Artemis Tau cluster."

"Whichever lead you choose to follow is your choose Commander," Anderson said.

"Excuse me," said a voice, and Shepard, Anderson, and Udina turned to see a man in an officer's uniform and wearing a beret approaching them. "You Commander Shepard?" the man asked. Shepard nodded. "I'm Colonel Mack Norman, I trust that you're familiar with Taylor Winters?"

"Yes," Shepard said "He's going to be helping me track down Saren."

Mack smiled "He would do something like that, anyway I knew his parents and I was around a lot when he was growing up. He knew I was on the Citadel and he contacted me, asking if I could do anything to help you." As he spoke he produced a data crystal chip from his pocket. "And I've done just that," he said, throwing the chip to Shepard, who caught it.

As Shepard looked at the chip, it began to project a hologram. The hologram was of a man dressed in 21st winter combat gear, his body completely hidden by it. The hologram was pure white, and it's code seemed to flow like lightly drifting snow. "Hey there," the hologram said, looking at Shepard. His voice sounded odd, as if it was coming out of an old radio. "My name's Richard, UNSC Smart A.I. at your service."

"I had to pull a couple of strings to get him to you," Mack said "Richard's one of the best A.I.s we've got right now, he's one of the experimental 8th generation. He should last twenty years, at the minimum."

"Yup," Richard said "My specialty is flying dropships, from what I've heard about the _Normandy_, it has three Pelicans, but no pilots."

Shepard nodded, "I imagine you'll be very helpful," he said, as Richard nodded and deactivated his avatar.

"Well Shepard," Anderson said "From here on out it's all up to you, good luck, although you probably don't need it."

Author's Note I just wanted to explain why Rtas and Ramos are there, Rtas is basically the RSN's Udina (Minus the assholeishness) and Ramos is the RSN's Anderson. Next chapter will deal with rescuing Liara, then Feros, then Noveria, maybe with a side quest here and there. Is it just me, or does everyone in the Milky Way go to Shepard for help?


	12. Dr Liara T'Soni

Chapter 12

Dr. Liara T'Soni

Author's note. I have received a handful of complaints that the last couple of chapters were practically the same as the game, and they have a point. From this point on I am going to do the best I can to make this story completely original. Cut me some slack on this chapter though, it's kind of hard to change something like this, what am I suppose to do, put Flood on Therum?

"Alright, we're coming up on Therum," Joker said through the COM lines. Shepard was sitting in the back of a Pelican, along with the rest of the ground team, Rebecca, Kaiden, Garrus and Demas. He had tried to balance out the team, Rebecca for short range, Garrus for long range, Demas for medium range, and Kaiden for his biotics, overall he was pleased with it.

After leaving the Citadel a couple of days ago, the _Normandy _had traveled to Therum in the Artemis Tau cluster, looking for Dr. Liara T'Soni. Shepard had decided that finding Liara would be a good place to start, as she would most likely know how her mother would act. "Entering lower atmosphere," Joker said "Alright Richard, take them away."

The sound of clamps being released could be heard as the Pelican was released and flew out of the _Normandy_. "I'm picking up a massive energy spike," Richard said, as he controlled the Pelican from the _Normandy._ "It looks like it's coming from a Prothean ruin unearthed by mining companies. It looks like a good place to start looking so I'll drop you off there. A word of warning however, there has been increasing amounts of volcanic activity in the surrounding area."

"Yeah, so if you toast any marshmallows while your down there you have to bring up some for the rest of the crew," Joker said.

Shepard smiled slightly "I'll keep that in mind Joker," he replied.

"Does he always talk like that?" Demas asked, looking at Kaiden

Kaiden sighed. "Sadly, yes," he said.

"All right here we are," Richard said, as the Pelican touched down on the surface. "Give me a shout when you're ready to leave and I'll be here ASAP," he said as the ground team jumped out of the Pelican. As they did the Pelican's loading bay door closed, and the Pelican began to return to the _Normandy. _

"Liara's probably in there," Shepard said, pointing towards the gaping entrance at the top of a nearby ramp. "From what we've heard this is the most recently unearthed ruin, she would most likely be checking it out." The rest of the ground team nodded as they followed Shepard into the ruin.

The entrance led into a tube like tunnel the slopped downward gently. "Am I the only one that finds it a little strange that this place is completely deserted?" Kaiden asked as they walked forward. "I mean where are the miners? The researchers?"

"Kaiden as a point," Rebecca said as the reached the end of the tunnel and walked onto a catwalk. "Why would this place be completely deserted? Unless..." A rocket blazed past the heads of the ground team, exploding when it hit the wall behind them.

"Son of a bitch!" Rebecca shouted, as Garrus leveled his sniper rifle and fired a shot that pierced the optic of the Geth that had fired the rocket.

"Well, that's one explanation!" Garrus shouted as the ground team ducked behind the railings "The Geth are here!" Five armed Geth were standing on a nearby catwalk, aiming their weapons at the ground team. Garrus leaned out of cover and firing another shot, which pierced the optic of another Geth. Garrus was forced to duck down as the Geth opened fired at him, causing his kinetic barriers to collapse.

Taking advantage of the distracted Geth, Kaiden threw a Warp at them, causing the Kinetic Barriers of two of the Geth to collapse. Rebecca drew her magnum and emptied the clip into the chest of one of the unshielded Geth, causing the synthetic to collapse. At the same Shepard fire his battle rifle at the other unshielded Geth, causing it to stagger forward and fall off of the catwalk.

Jumping off of the catwalk, Demas activated his anti-gravity pack, which propelled him towards the Geth. As he landed on the catwalk, he activated his energy sword, thrusting it through the nearest Geth. Holding onto the Geth, Demas positioned it between him and the remaining Geth, using it as as shield from the remaining Geth's fire. Charging forward, Demas used the dead Geth to smash the remaining Geth into the wall, crushing it.

"Well, that's an interesting way of killing a Geth," Garrus said, as the rest of the ground team descended to where Demas stood. As Demas released his grip on the Geth, letting it fall to the ground, the ground team continued down the catwalk, coming across an elevator. As they stepped into the elevator, which began to descend automatically. As they neared their destination, the elevator began to spark, and by the time it finally stopped, it had begun to smoke.

"Well," Shepard said, looking at the smoking elevator as they team stepped out "I doubt that thing will hold if we take it back up."

"Um hello?" said an uncertain voice that came from somewhere nearby "Can anyone hear me? I'm trapped and I can't get out." Shepard glanced towards the origin of the voice, and saw an Asari in a doctor's uniform, floating behind what looked like a transparent barrier.

"Are you alright?" he asked, as they approached the barrier "How did you end up like this?

"I heard the Geth coming so I tried to activate this Prothean security device," the Asari said "But apparently I hit something that I shouldn't have and got stuck here."

"Don't worry we'll get you out of there," Garrus said reassuringly "Just one question, are you Liara T'soni?"

Liara blinked "How do you know my name?"

"We came here to look for you," Rebecca said "We need your help, you might not know, but a Spectre called Saren has gone rouge and is using Geth accomplish his plans. We're trying to stop him."

"How am I supposed to be able to help you?" Liara asked, clearly confused "What is so special about me?"

Rebecca rubbed the back of her neck in obvious discomfort "Your mother is working with Saren, we thought that it would be helpful having you on board because you know how she acts."

"Benezia is...but I don't know...she doesn't," Liara stuttered desperately, clearly in too much shock to from a coherent sentence. "Why would she do this?" she asked, disbelief heavy in her voice.

"We don't know," Shepard said "But we're going to try to find out. Now do you have any idea on how we can deactivate this barrier."

"The controls are behind this barrier," Liara said "You'll have to find another way around. Be careful, I saw a Krogan with the Geth trying to bypass the barrier."

"Thanks," Kaiden said "We'll keep an eye out for them."

Walking away from the barrier, the ground team descended a ramp and ended at the bottom of a cavern. "I find it a little hard to believe that the daughter of anyone who works with Saren can act like that," Rebecca said as she shook her head. "She just seems so...innocent."

"Sometimes the fruit falls far from the tree," Demas said, as Kaiden nodded in approval.

"Hey that looks like an old mining laser," Garrus said as he pointed towards a large piece of machinery laying not too far away. "I'm no Quarian, but I know a couple of things about machines, let me see if I can get it going again," he said as he pulled panel out and began to fiddle with the wiring. "If I guess cross these two and remove that one," he muttered, mostly to himself "This goes here, that goes there, and bingo," he said as he closed the panel and pushed a nearby button. A bright red laser shot out of the end of the drill, melting the rock face of the far end of the cavern, revealing a bright silver room on the other side as the laser deactivated.

"Well that worked pretty well," Shepard said "Nice work Garrus." The Turian nodded. "Come on," he said, as he and the others walked into the newly uncovered room, which contained what appeared to be an elevator. As the stepped onto the elevator, it automatically began to rise up, coming to a stop at the same level that Liara was on.

"How did you get back here?" Liara asked, craning her neck over her shoulder to look at Shepard and the others "I didn't think that there was anyway to get past the barrier."

"We'll tell you all about it later," Shepard said as he approached a counsel, pressed a few buttons that causing the field that was holding Liara up to be deactivated "But right now I think that it would be a good idea to get out of here."

"You make a good point," Liara said, as she got to her feet "I think I've seen enough of these ruins, but does anyone have a pistol that I can use."

"Here," Garrus said, throwing one to Liara, who caught it. "You can have mine, don't worry about it I have a spare."

"Thank you," Liara said, as they all walked back to the elevator.

"Is there any chance that you'll come along with us and help us stop Saren?" Shepard asked as they stepped onto the elevator "We could really use your help."

"Much of this is still confusing to me," Liara said rubbing her forehead "I haven't spoken to my mother in years. She always did belief that Asari should be more pronounced in galactic roles, but even she would not stoop to work with Saren. What exactly are they planning?"

"We are not certain," Demas said "We learned from a recording that Saren is looking for something called the Conduit, and it has to do with a race of machines called the Reapers. Do you have any idea what the Conduit may be?"

Liara shook her head, "I am sorry," she said "But I have never heard of something called the Conduit. Perhaps it is..." Liara's voice trailed off as the ruins began to rumble.

"What was that?" Kaiden asked, a worried tone to his voice.

"These ruins are not very stable," Liara answered, a slight hint of fear in her voice "Whatever you did must have triggered some sort of seismic activity."

"Richard!" Shepard shouted into his COM unit "We a pickup and we need it now!"

"Copy that Shepard," Richard said, as Liara approached a console and activated it, causing the elevator to move up. "I'm on my way down ETA four minutes."

"Let's hope he gets here in time," Kaiden said as the elevator began to move upwards. As the elevator came to a stop, Shepard spotted a Krogan and a handful of Geth heading towards them.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way," the Krogan said "Pick the hard way if you feel like it, I don't mind."

"In case you didn't notice, this place is about to fall down on our heads!" Shepard shouted in an exasperated voice.

"Exciting isn't it?" the Krogan asked. "We'll let you walk away, we just want the Asari."

"Let me think about it," Demas said, as he propelled himself forward with his anti-gravity pack, activating his energy sword, and slashed the Krogan and half viciously. "No," he said as he jumped back, swapping his energy sword for his plasma rifles. As he landed everyone opened fire, and the Geth all collapsed under the superior firepower.

As everyone exited the elevator room, they found themselves in the uppermost part of the cavern, which was beginning to collapse around them. "MOVE!" Shepard bellowed, as everyone began to run forward, heading for the exit. They barely made it, for the second they had reached the tube like tunnel, a massive boulder fell from the ceiling, smashing the catwalks.

As they emerged from the ruins, they found a Pelican waiting for them, the back door open. "Are you alright?" Richard asked as they climbed into the Pelican.

"Yeah," Shepard said in a tired voice "Just get us out of here."

Author's Note: I decided that the debriefing wasn't really important enough to write about you I decided to skip that bit, I think I actually start writing the next chapter right about now. Go easy on me for this chapter being similar to the game, I couldn't come up with any ideas for it. Well ok I came up with one but I decided that it would force the plot forward too quickly and I'm saving it for later. I can't talk about it without seriously spoiling the story, so I'll just leave it here, I'll try to get the next chapter up soon to make up for how short this one is.


	13. Missing Marines

Chapter 13

Missing Marines

Author's Note: I decided to start working on one of the side quests. BTW if anyone spots anything that could possible qualify as a spoiler, I'm begging you, keep it to yourself.

Liara relaxed into the chair that she was sitting in. She was in a room located behind the infirmary. Dr. Chakwas had allowed her to use it after she had examined her, reporting that apart from exhaustion she was completely fine. Liara was typing on a computer in front of her when she heard a knock on the door. Turning around, she saw Rebecca enter the room, a warm smile on her face. "Can I help you?" Liara asked, uncertain as to what the ODST wanted.

"Relax," Rebecca said in a comforting voice, sitting down "I just wanted to talk to you. If we're running around the galaxy trying to stop a psychotic Turian, we might as well get to know each other. How are you holding up?"

"I am fine," Liara answered, a little taken aback by Rebecca's kindness "Dr. Chakwas determined that I was completely healthy aside from a minor case of exaustion. I never thanked you for saving me down there, if the Geth had gotten to me," she shook her head "I don't want to think about it."

"You would've done the same thing if you were in my boots," Rebecca said kindly. Liara turned a slightly darker shade of blue as Rebecca said this.

"I know that the Commander took a large risk when he brought me aboard," Liara said "Some of the crew has looked at me with distrust in their eyes, but I am not like my mother, and I will do whatever I can to help top Saren."

"I believe you," Rebecca said "I've heard a bit about Benezia and I've yet to find a single detail about her that you share."

"It means a lot to me to hear that," Liara said, nodding her head "Thank you."

"Would you mind telling me little bit more about yourself?" Rebecca asked.

"Really?" Liara asked, clearly taken aback. She was surprised, after all they had just met.

"If it'll make you feel more comfortable, I'll tell you a little bit about myself first. Would that make things a little better?" Liara nodded. "Ok," Rebecca said as she crossed her legs "Where to begin? I'm like most ODSTs signed up the second I turned 18 and started off as a Marine, nobody starts off as an ODST, you only become one after you have some experience under your belt."

"Surprisingly enough my parents weren't in the military, because let me tell you something, you'll get that story nine out of ten times if you ask a Marine." At this point Rebecca's smile faded and was replaced by a sad frown. "Unfortunately they're both dead. Dad had a heart attack, and my Mom got in a car crash when some drunken asshole slammed into her car head on."

"Do you miss them?" Liara asked curiously.

Rebecca looked at Liara sadly "All the time," she said, her voice choking a little. "But when someone dies, you get used to it, after all it is a part of life, and it's normal for a child to bury his parents one day, even if it is sad."

"How did you end up on the _Normandy_?" Liara asked, trying to change the subject.

"Well," Rebecca said, forgetting her momentary sadness as she thought about her past "I was stationed on Eden Prime when the Geth invaded it. Taylor and I managed to fight our way through towards where the beacon used to be. After that we headed up to the spaceport and Taylor saved Nihlus' life believe it or not. After Shepard got that vision of his, we helped Demas hunt down for evidence of Saren's guilt. After a firefight in Chora's Den, we got the info we needed, Shepard was made a Spectre and here we are, hunting down Saren. Alright your turn."

"What?" Liara asked, looking startled "Oh, I am not very interesting, I've spent half of my half digging through the remains of the Protheans ruins."

"You call that boring?" Rebecca said "One of the greatest wonders of the UNSC is the remains of the ancient alien civilization that we study."

"Yes, I think I heard about them," Liara said hesitantly "They were called the Forerunners, right?" Rebecca nodded. "I have a theory concerning ancient civilizations. The Protheans had a massive empire that extended to the far reaches of the galaxy, much like the Forerunners. Yet both of them completely disappeared, with all but faint traces of them wiped away. I've theorized that there is a cycle of extinction in this galaxy. Every civilization builds upon the remains of the previous race, until they are destroyed and the cycle repeats itself."

"That's a groundbreaking theory," Rebecca said plainly "Do you think it has anything to do with the Reapers?"

"Maybe," Liara said, looking thoughtful as she scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"Hey what's that over there?" Rebecca asked, pointing at a pile of pitch black armor lying in the corner of the room.

"Oh, Ashley gave me a some ODST armor," Liara said "She said that I would be needing it where we're going. It was awfully nice of her, considering that I have no armor of my own."

Rebecca was about to reply, when Shepard spoke through the ship's intercom "Rebecca, Iasa, Wrex, Tali and Liara, I need you to gear up and meet me in the hanger bay. While we were heading towards the Mass Effect relay in the Sparta system, we picked up a distress signal coming from the planet Edolus, and I intend on responding to it. The planet's atmosphere is not breathable so equip yourselves for that."

"What do you think happened down there?" Rebecca asked, as she toke her helmet off of her back and slid it over her head.

"Whatever it is, it can't be any good," Liara said as she picked up a wristguard from her pile of armor and slapped it on.

Half an hour later, two Pelicans flew down to the surface of Edolus, each one carrying a Warthog. Shepard sat in one Pelican with Iasa and Wrex, while Rebecca Liara and Tali sat in the other. "Due to extreme dust storms I'll have to drop you a klick away from the distress signal," Richard said "You'll have to take the Warthogs to get there," he continued as the Pelicans landed and the back doors opened and the Warthogs were detached from the dropships. "Be careful down there, not a whole lot is is known about this planet, you have no idea what you're walking into."

Tali jumped onto the gun of the first Warthog, while Liara climbed into the passenger's seat, while Rebecca climbed into the drivers seat. "Just point it at whatever I don't like and pull the trigger?" Tali asked as she gripped the turret tightly.

"Pretty much, it's very accurate," Rebecca said as she pressed down on the acceleration, following the other Warthog, which had Shepard driving, Wrex on the gun, and Iasa in the passenger's seat with a carbine. The two Warthogs tore across the rocky planet, heading towards the source of the distress signal.

"Who would even come to a planet like this?" Liara asked, as the Warthog began to descend into what looked like a basin, some sort of structure visible at the bottom.

"You never know," Rebecca said as they began to approach the bottom of the basin "Maybe it would be a good place for mining."

"We're coming up on the origin of the distress signal," Shepard said through the COM lines "Keep your eyes peeled, remember someone sent that distress that signal for a reason." No sooner had Shepard spoken than the earth began to shake, and a massive form emerged from the ground easily 30 meters high.

"THRESHER MAW!" Rebecca shouted as she slammed on the brakes and put the Warthog in reverse, and Tali opened fire at the Thresher Maw. Shepard swerved violently as Wrex fired his own turret at the Thresher Maw. The bullets from both turrets tore into the armor of the Thresher Maw, causing damage although it was minor. It would take a good deal of fire to kill it.

"Keep your distance from it!" Shepard shouted over the COM lines "If you get to close that thing will tear your Warthog in half!"

"How are we supposed to kill this thing?" Tali shouted in frustration, as Rebecca swerved and began to circle the Thresher Maw, Shepard doing the same thing.

"We need to wear it down," Iasa shouted, as she fired she carbine at the Thresher Maw "In Humanity's past, Chinese Triads killed their enemies by cutting their enemies a thousand times until they bled to death. The wounds our weapons are creating are merely cuts to it, we need to keep wounding it until it dies from blood loss."

"She is right!" Wrex roared as he fired the turret at the Thresher Maw "I killed one of these things during my Rite of Passage using the same methods!"

"Yeah, that's a good idea!" Tali shouted "Just one problem, we need to actually stay alive long enough to actually kill it, and by the looks of it this Bosh'tet will take a lot of ammunition to kill!

"She has a point!" Rebecca shouted, as she swerved to avoid a glob of acid that the Thresher Maw had spat at them, narrowly avoid it. "One false move and we're screwed!"

The Thresher Maw spat another glob of acid at Rebecca's Warthog, who barley avoid it. "This isn't going well!" Tali shouted as she continued to fire at Thresher Maw, as it spat another glob of acid at them. The monstrosity spat a third glob at the Warthog, this one was much more accurate, heading directly towards the Warthog. Liara threw her hands up, conjuring up a Biotic Barrier. The glob of acid slammed into the barrier, causing to the shattered, although the Warthog remained unharmed.

Liara let out a cry of pain as she clutched at her chest. "Are you alright?" Rebecca asked as she desperately avoid another glob of acid.

"Yes," Liara said, painting heavily "But I don't think I can make another Barrier that can protect us from that," she said as she threw a Warp at the Thresher Maw tearing a fist sized hole in it's side.

"Hopefully it won't come to that," Rebecca said, "But if we get hit by just one of those things, even indirectly, we're fucked!"

"Hold on!" Shepard shouted through his COM unit, as his Warthog drove towards the Thresher Maw, turret blazing. The Thresher Maw's attention was drawn away from Rebecca's Warthog, as it swung it's claws at Shepard's Warthog, only missing narrowly. As both Warthogs fired at the beast, it swung it's claws again, aiming for Shepard's Warthog. It missed however, as it's movements were starting to becoming sluggish.

"It is weakening!" Wrex shouted, as both he and Tali concentrated their fire on the Thresher Maw's mouth as it opened in a frustrated roar. It began to shake, as if it was dizzy. As bullets from the turrets continued to slam into it, the Thresher Maw fell to the ground, with an earsplitting crash.

"Is it dead?" Liara asked relaxing into her seat, as Rebecca began to drive, once again, towards the origin of the distress signal.

"I think so," Rebecca said, keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel to keep her hands from shaking. Something felt awfully familiar about this whole situation, but she couldn't put her finger on it, and part of her felt that that might be a good thing. As they approached the center of of the basin they realized that they structure was actually a series of overturned and burning Warthogs.

"Oh Keelah," Tali said, as she Rebecca brought the Warthog to a stop, right beside the burning LRVs. "What happened here?" she asked, activating omni-tool, as all three of them disembarked from the Warthog. "The distress signal is coming from over there," she said, pointing towards a UNSC made beacon.

"Oh Goddess," Liara said "There's no way that whoever used these vehicle lasted long enough to set up that beacon. They must have been lured here, this whole thing is a trap."

"Well then" Tali said, unholstering her shotgun and firing a burst at the beacon, which exploded as a result. "We can't just let the next group that comes through here meet the same fate."

Rebecca glanced around, looking for any survivors. As she did so, she saw a Marine half buried under a Warthog, one of his eyes had burst open, and it didn't look like he was breathing.

That's when it all came back, Rebecca knew what this place was as memories, unbidden and unwelcome, burst to the forefront of her mind.

_Panting heavily, Rebecca crouched down, firing her rifle at where she last saw the creature, but it was so dark it was hard to tell. How the Hell had she lost her helmet? Now she was blind. She threw herself out of the way as it spat another glob of acid. As it hit the ground where she once was, it splashed and a good deal landed on her right arm. Rebecca's mouth opened in a cry of agony as white hot pain shot through her arm. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a Warthog's blazing gun as it tried to kill the creature, but it swiped at it with it's claws, sending the Warthog flying. Rebecca let out a scream of terror as she realized that the Warthog was about to land directly on top of her._

"We can't get them all of the dead on the dropships," Tali said, looking at another pair of dead Marines "We'll have to contact the UNSC, they'll see to it that they get proper burials."

"Yes," Liara said as she nodded. "We better get out of here, there's nothing else that we can do here. Right Rebecca?" Rebecca did not answer. "Rebecca?" Liara said, turning around just in time to see Rebecca's legs give out, causing her to fall face first onto the ground, unconscious.

Author's Note: How's that for originality and drama? I told you that I would get the next chapter up today, and I delivered. I gotta say, I'm pretty happy with the way this one ended up. We, please tell me what you think.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have started putting Codex entries for this story on my profile, if you are interested go check it out.


	14. Scars of the Past

Chapter 14

Scars of the Past

Author's Note: Wow, the last chapter got the lowest amount of reviews this story has had so far. Sad face :( Aw well, here's to hoping that this next chapter turns out a little better. By the way, someone posted several reviews without a name, all of them the same person. Each one contained several paragraphs of why this story sucks. I just want to say this, if you don't like this story, I understand that, it isn't for everyone, but why on earth would you read it, write a review on how much it sucks and continue to read it! I don't want twelve reviews from the same person telling me how much each chapter sucks, it pisses me off! I know that barley any of my readers do this, so I'm going to let it go, but if one more person does this, I'm going to disable anonymous reviews so that if someone trashes me I can report them. All right on with the story.

"She just fainted?" Chakwas asked, a disbelieving look on her face.

"Believe me I'm just as confused as you are," Shepard said, shaking his head. Both he and Chakwas were standing outside of the infirmary, where Rebecca was resting. "Soldiers don't kill a Thresher Maw just to faint because she saw a corpse."

"It could be a phobia," Chakwas said "Or maybe she has some mental scarring. Commander if I may ask, where are we heading next?"

"We've set course towards Feros," Shepard said "We lost contact with the research colony Zhu's Hope and we're going to investigate."

"Uh, Commander?" joker said over the intercom "I sent the data on the dead Marines that you found on Edolus a couple of hours back. Admiral Kahoku is on the line, and he wants to talk to you."

Shepard let out a sigh. "Let me know when Rebecca wakes up," he said, as he turned and walked away from the infirmary "I would rather not go through her personal files without her permission. Still if it may come to that, but if she's willing to tell me why, I see no reason to invade her privacy."

As Shepard walked through the Normandy, he approached the COM room, stopping in front of the console. "Commander Shepard?" said Kahoku through the COM lines "Is that you?"

"It's me Admiral," Shepard said "How can I help you?"

"The data that you sent me, those men were under my command," Kahoku said grimly. "I pulled some strings and I've got some bad news. My men were killed my Cerberus."

"Cerberus..." Shepard said as he scratched his head "I know I've heard that name somewhere.

"Not a whole lot is known about them," Kahoku said urgently "They used to be a moderate UNSC blackops that reported to ONI but they went rouge awhile back. They claim that they intend to make Humans the dominate species in the galaxy, no matter what the cost. From the point of view of most, they've become a terrorist group that doesn't care how many people get killed as long as they get what they want."

"Why would they lead a team of Marines into a ditch to be killed by a Thresher Maw?" Shepard asked "What do they gain from it?"

"I don't know," the Admiral replied "Maybe they were testing the capabilities of the Thresher Maw, maybe they wanted to see if the Marines had what it took to kill it. I can't say for sure, I don't have enough data all I know is Cerberus is nothing but trouble. I have some good news though, the UNSC has successfully planted several moles in Cerberus that are leaking us information. It's rather limited though, Cerberus is an organization that thrives on secrecy, only the man who runs the entire thing knows everything that there is to know?"

"Who's the mole?" Shepard asked curiously.

"For obvious reasons I can't tell you, but she did give me some interesting information," Kahoku told Shepard. "Apparently one of Cerberus' long term goals is to create a super soldier, they want their very own SPARTANs. My contacts couldn't get me any information on how far off they are, but she did get me the location of a research base. Cerberus has one on the planet Binthu in the Yangtze system. I know that you have a mission of your own but should you happen to be in the area, I would appreciate if you could destroy the base and get whatever data from it that you can."

Shepard nodded. "I'm busy right now Admiral, but right after I take care of the situation on Zhu's Hope I'll get right on that."

"I knew I could count on your Shepard," the Admiral said in a relieved voice "I would've sent in ODSTs but we can't spare any ships, they're all being deployed to the colonies in case of a Geth attack. Godspeed Commander," Kahoku said as he closed the line.

Rebecca moaned slighted as she pressed her hand to her forehead. As she sat up in the bed that she was in, she realized that she was lying in the infirmary. "I thought I was past this," she muttered "I thought that this wouldn't happen anymore. Now the nightmares are probably going to start again."

"What nightmares?" asked a voice right next to Rebecca. Rebecca nearly jumped out of the bed, as she turned around and saw Liara sitting next to her bed, looking at her patiently. "If it isn't that far out of line," Liara asked politely "Why did you faint?"

Rebecca let out a groan as she rubbed her eyes. "Look, it was only trigged by very unique circumstance that I doubt will ever happen again. This won't jeopardize the mission in any..."

"I don't care about it affecting the mission," Liara interrupted "I care about it affecting you." Rebecca blinked, clearly confused. "You showed me kindness when I first came aboard, I thought that it would only be right to repay it." Rebecca looked extremely uncomfortable as she rubbed her forehead.

"I...," she said weakly "I had a close brush with death once." Liara nodded, silently asking Rebecca to continue. "We had lost contact with one of the new towns on the colony Akuze. I was one of the Marines stationed on the planet at the time. They sent out a platoon of us to go see what was wrong. We went by Warthog, half of them were only the passenger model, but when we got to where the town was, there was nothing there, like it had never existed.

"We were as confused as Hell, but it was getting dark, so we decided to set up camp, and thats when it all went to shit."

"What happened?" Liara asked.

"The town had been destroyed by a Thresher Maw, and as soon as the sun went down, it came back up for us." Rebecca shook her head "We had no idea what they were back then and we had no idea what to do. It fucking slaughtered us, smashing the Warthogs, dissolving people, I even got a nice glob of acid on my shoulder."

Liara's eyes widened. 'But, that doesn't make any sense,' she thought, looking at both of Rebecca's arms 'Thresher Maw acid is highly corrosive, a glob would be enough to eat through her armor and take her arm off, but she still has both.' "But," Liara said speaking up "How did you survive? Thresher Maws just don't let their pray go."

Rebecca let out a bitter laugh "You're right, the only reason that it didn't kill me, was because it thought I was already dead, and I can't say that I blame. It flipped a Warthog, and it landed right on top of me." Liara let out a startled gasp, despite her best intentions to remain silent.

"When the next team that came through found me, I was a real mess," Rebecca continued. "Blunt trauma to a good deal of my internal organs, one of my eyes had burst wide open, I had lost a lot of blood and my right arm had been completely melted off."

"But..." Liara spluttered "You have your arm, your eye's fine too."

"Oh yeah," Rebecca said grimly "I forgot to mention to you why I'm still alive. See when they found me they tried a very advanced medical technique to save me and it worked. Cybernetics."

Liara blinked "What?"

"They replaced my arm, my eye, and some of my internal organs with cybernetic implants and then covered them with artificial skin, I'm freaking 20% metal and circuitry" Rebecca answered "Oh yeah, they did this too." she said as she drew her combat knife, and pricked one of her fingers. A bright white liquid oozed out of the wound. "Artificial blood," she said "There wasn't any donor blood available so they filled me up with this. It's much more effective than regular Human blood, carries more oxygen, more resident against disease. In the end it ended up 'choking' the rest of my regular blood cells to death and now all of my blood is artificial."

"Do they...bother you?" Liara asked cautiously, not wanting to unintentionally insult Rebecca.

"My implants? Nah," Rebecca replied "I can't even tell that they're there, except my right arms a lot stronger now. But I was one of the lucky ones," she said, looking down sadly. "Sarah, Blake, Alexandra, Michael, Katey," tears began to form in Rebecca's eyes as she spoke. "Derek, Tomas, Lucas, Martha...Jesus Christ," she said, pressing her hands to her face as the tears began to flow from her eyes. "Dead," she sobbed "All dead."

Without consciously thinking about it, Liara reached towards Rebecca, wrapping her arms around her and pulling the woman into a hug. Rebecca quickly returned the favor, unintentionally pulling Liara onto the bed as she hugged her. "You are strong," Liara said, a little shocked at how easily Rebecca had pulled her towards her.

The ODST chuckled weakly "Thanks," she said as she released Liara and stood up "I needed that, it feels good to vent just do me a favor and don't tell anyone else what I just told you. I'm gonna head back to my quarters now, if Dr. Chakwas comes around tell her where I went." As she spoke, she turned and began to walk towards the door.

"Um, Rebecca," Liara said quietly, causing Rebecca to stop and turn around. "I was just wondering, we are friends right?" she asked uncertainly.

A warm smile spread across Rebecca's face "Yes Liara, we are," she said, as she left the infirmary. A small smile spread across Liara's face as she felt much happier than she had in a long time.

"We're in orbit around around Theros," Joker's voice said over the intercom as Liara walked out of the infirmary, privately hoping that she could sit this one out."

Author's Note:It's short I know but it's mainly there for character development , just so you know, I am not focusing solely on Rebecca in Liara, neither of them will be on the Zhu's Hope mission, which will last a couple of chapters...I think. I'll use that time to develop other characters. BTW I am slowly becoming addicted to an online game called Ogame. Let me break it down for you, basically you command an empire in space, working your way from a small empire with one planet that can't even afford 1 fighter, to a massive galactic power with massive fleets at your disposal. If anyone is interested in joining Ogame, I play in Universe Electra and I am part of the WARP alliance. Please note that if inexperienced players want to join WARP they'll have to join the wing alliance, WARPling, first. Please message me if you play or plan on playing Ogame.


	15. Zhu's Hope

Chapter 15

Zhu's Hope

I know it's been awhile, but I suffer from bouts of laziness from time to time. There's another chapter of Fighting for a Purpose on the way, so keep an eye out. Rest assured, it will take awhile, but both of these stories will be finished.

"Alright Commander, we're docking with the shipyard of Zhu's Hope," Joker said through the COM lines. Shepard was standing in the airlock of the _Normandy _along with the rest of the ground team, Taylor, Ashley, Iasa, and Tali. The airlock opened, and the team exited the ship, stepping out into the colony. As they did, a starting colonist that had been standing guard, pointed an assault rifle at them in a panicked manner.

"You...," he said, lowering his rifle, "You're not Geth."

"What happened here?" Shepard asked looking around. The colony was a mess, signs of battle were everywhere, used shell casings covered the ground and spatters of red Human blood and white Geth blood covered the wall.

"The Geth did," the colonist said, looking around "They came out of nowhere and attacked the colony, easily half of the colonists are dead, there weren't that many of us to begin with. They set up some sort of jamming device so we couldn't send out an SOS." The colonist shook his head "It gets worse, you know how after the Shanxi War the Council upgraded their ships?

Shepard nodded. During the Shanxi war, the Council had been completely dominated in space combat, in response to that, the Council had completely refitted their fleet. The newer models of Council ships were much larger, each one only a couple dozen meters shorter than their UNSC counter part. In addition to that, their Mass Effect cores had been upgraded, causing their projectiles to be much more deadly, although they still were only half as powerful as a MAC they had twice the fire rate. Their kinetic barriers had been replaced with regular shields, as they were more effective being able to completely block plasma in addition to projectiles. As a matter of fact, the Normandy was equipped with similar designs, in addition to it's stealth systems.

The RSN didn't go out of their way to tell people about it, but they had given the Council the shielding technology, as they had grown to respect them as much as they did Humans, despite their disagreements about A.I.s and the Quarians. As a matter of fact, many Council politicians were no longer troubled by the Quarians being absorbed by the RSN, some have even grown fond of the concept. Both the UNSC and RSN were impressed by this display in part due to the fact that, apart from the shields, the Council had completely redesigned their entire fleet in a matter of years. As a matter of fact, due to these upgrades, a war between the UNSC RSN and the Council would be long a bloody with no clear cut winner.

"Yeah, well we're in a world of hurt, because it looks like the Geth did the exact same thing," the colonist said as he shook his head. "The frigate that they came in hooked up to main ExoGeni building, and it is fucking massive only a little smaller than one of our frigates. They completely overran the main colony, we had to hole up here at the spaceport, and things aren't looking well. They make a raid every once in awhile, but we've been able to hold them off so far, but I have no idea how much longer we'll be able to. What are you doing here anyway?"

"We came here to look for leads on a rouge Spectre," Shepard said "And it looks like we're here to help you to."

"I...thanks," the colonist said "You'll want to talk with Fai Dan. He's sort of in charge."

"What do you mean sort of in charge?" Ashley asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well no one elected or appointed him," the colonist said "But he calls the shots, and he does a pretty good job. No one has any issues with what he's doing so no one else tried to take his place. Hence forth he's sort of in charge."

"What's your name?" Shepard asked.

"Issac," Issac replied "Issac Morgan."

"You're going to be alright, Issac, we're going to solve this problem," Taylor said comfortingly.

"Um to be perfectly honest," Issac said "I'm more worried about the other colonists, they've been acting...odd."

"Odd in what way?" asked Tali.

"It's hard to describe," Issac said "But among other things, they seem to be completely bent on defending the colony, but they're not doing the way that you would expect. Some people stand completely still for hours pointing their guns at one of the entrances waiting for the Geth. They're acting more like machines then untrained colonists. Not to mention Ian Newstead, went down into the tunnels not too long ago and hasn't come back up. When I ask the others they just tell me that he's sick, but they won't tell me anything else."

Issac rubbed his eyes in a weary manner "Sometimes I think I'm the only sane man left on the colony, but I keep telling myself that they're only acting odd because they're not used to this kind of thing. Anyway, you'll want to head up that way," he said pointing towards a set of stairs behind him. "Please, if you can do anything to help them, do it."

Shepard nodded as he and the rest of the ground team proceeded up the stairs. "Do you think what Issac said about the colonists was anything to worry about?"

"Possibly," Iasa said "Those without proper military training, and some that do have it, suffer severe mental scaring in situations like this."

As they walked through the colony, they saw that things were in a very sad state. Everything around them looked run down and warn, the entire place looked like it was about to fall apart. As they walked past what looked like the remains of a freighter, they saw a man talking to a woman wearing makeshift armor. As he spotted the ground team, the man turned to face Shepard smiling warmly.

"UNSC, finally," he said as he extended his hand to Shepard "I was worried that we wouldn't be able to hold out much longer."

"You're Fai Dan right?" Shepard asked. A confused look spread across Fai Dan's face. "Issac told us about you."

"Ah yes Issac," Fai Dan said "Good kid, but he's not quite ready yet."

"Ready for what?" Ashley asked "He seemed a fairly capable fighter from the way he held himself. From the state of things down there, he's probably had practice fighting Geth."

"Yes," Fai Dan said somberly "But he is not ready to do what must be asked of him, but he will be, very soon."

"When Issac said that the colonists were acting weird he wasn't kidding," Taylor whispered to Tali, who nodded warily.

"I assume that you are here to deal with the Geth," Fai Dan said. Shepard nodded. "You'll have to head up the skyway to the main ExoGeni building, they're the company that funded this colony. The frigate the Geth came in hooked up to it and flooded the building."

"We'll get right on that," Shepard said, raising his hand to his COM unit. "Richard, I need you to drop two Warthogs on the colony's entrance to the skyway, we're heading up to the ExoGeni building."

"Figures," the woman in makeshift armor muttered.

"Pardon me?" Ashley asked coldly, glaring at the woman.

"Oh nothing," the woman said sternly "You head on up to the ExoGeni building, we'll just stay here and fend for ourselves, we don't need help or anything."

"You ungrateful whelp," Iasa snarled "We are launching an assault on the enemy's main headquarters, most of the Geth will be in the frigate there, and will most likely be killed when we destroyed there. We are putting ourselves in harms way to remove the Geth from this planet, and all you do is complain? You are not getting what you want, you are getting what you need, so unless you have something worthwhile to say, stop wasting our time."

The woman was silent as she walked away. "Please forgive her, we've been under an extreme amount of stress."

"I understand," Shepard said "We really need to go, we have to sweep the ExoGeni building for leads about a rouge Spectre named Saren in addition to taking care of the Geth." Fai Dan nodded as they walked away.

"Where did that come from?" Ashley asked Iasa as the walked away, towards the entrance to the skyway, Taylor and Shepard slightly ahead of the others.

"I have a short temper," Iasa replied

"Why? You just don't get angry easily for no reason," Tali asked, entering the conversation.

"Have you ever heard of Asari with two other Asari as parents?" Iasa asked "They are mocked in the Asari community for who their father's are. Let's say I have an idea of how they feel."

"Why?" Ashley asked "Who is your father?"

"You might have heard of him," Iasa "He was an Arbiter."

"You father is Thel 'Vadam?" Ashley asked, clearly shocked.

Iasa gave a bitter laugh "I wish," she said stonily "No, he was the Arbiter before Thel."

"Oh Keelah," Tali said in a shocked voice "Your father is Ripa "Moramee?" Iasa nodded coldly. "But I thought that the dishonor of fathers didn't pass to their children in Sangheili culture."

"They don't," Iasa said "Not officially anyway. But when your father was a raving madman that loves slaughtering his enemy so much that he could be mistaken for a Jiralhanae, people tend to stare and whisper. It happened to me for years while I was a child, as I result I lashed out easily, it was a defense mechanism of sorts."

"Who would marry someone like that?" Ashley in an exasperated voice.

"No one," Iasa replied "No one ever did, and I doubt anyone would if he was still alive."

"But," Tali said, clearly confused "If he ever married, how did you...you know...happen?"

"Sword gene status," Iasa said in a voice dripping with venom. "During the Human-Covenant War only aristocrats were allowed to use energy swords. Due to a misguided belief that the skill required to become an aristocrat could be passed from parent to offspring. As a result, those who wielded energy swords were allowed to mate without whoever they chose, married or not."

Iasa's fists clenched in anger. "That disgrace violated my mother," she said angrily "He thought he would allow himself a treat before leaving on a major campaign early in the war. My mother was living in a town near the shipyard where he was stationed. After he 'satisfied' himself," she said, nearly growling "He left for the campaign." A small smile passed Iasa's face. "He died on that campaign, good riddance."

"Keelah," Tali said "I can only imagine what growing up with someone like that being your father."

"It wasn't easy," Iasa said "But luckily for me my mother helped me through the whole ordeal. While I am reluctant to admit I am even related to my disgrace of a father, I could not be more proud to be my mother's daughter. It's almost humorous when I think about it, she treated more like a son than a daughter. She sparred with me, she taught me how to shoot, she even taught me how to properly use an energy sword." Iasa smiled "I can't help but wonder what she would say if she knew what I'm doing right now. I haven't seen much of her recently, she was promoted to a Shipmistress not too long ago.

"Impressive," Ashley said.

"Indeed," Iasa as the walked through a doorway and onto the skyway, miles above the ground, where Richard had dropped two Warthogs.

Author's Note: I just want to say this, if you have something to say about UNSC and RSN vs Council ships, or how the Council will always hate the Quarians, or how the RSN would never give the Council shields, or something along those lines, then I only have one thing to say. Shut...the...f#$%...up, I really don't care what you have to say about it. I swear some people make a big deal about the most TRIVAL things.

For those of you who don't know, Ripa Moramee is the Arbiter in Halo Wars, you know Ensemble Studios Mr. Darth Vader times ten. I thought that it would be good character development for Iasa. By the way, before anyone complains about this, Bungie never gives us any numbers on how long Sangheili live, so as far as I'm concerned they live a couple of centuries.


	16. ExoGeni

Chapter 16

ExoGeni

Author's Note: well I've got good news and bad news the bad news is that school starts soon :(. But the good news is that I got a job bagging groceries. Not too mention Halo Reach is right around the corner, I'm excited to be fighting Elites (I only played Halo 3) Well enjoy.

"So what's the plan Shepard?" Ashley asked as the two Warthogs sped up the Skyway, Ashley manning the turret in the Warthog that Shepard was driving, and that Iasa was ridding shotgun.

"Head up to the ExoGeni building, find whatever we can about Saren, and if we can find a way to destroy that frigate, do it," Shepard replied

"Sounds like a plan," Ashley said as she retightened her grip on the turret. "Wait," she said, as she took one hand off of the turret and pressed it to the side of her helmet. "Is anyone else picking up this transmission?"

"No," Shepard said, pressing a hand to his own helmet. "I hear it too." The radio transmission that they were listening in on was rather faint, all that they could pick up was static, and a panicked voice whose words could not be made out.

"Hey Shepard," Taylor said over the COM lines "Are Tali and I the only ones picking up the chatter that's going on around here?"

"No you're not," Shepard said, as the Warthogs drove through an old checkpoint. "Wait a minute, Taylor stop your Warthog," he said, as he slammed on the breaks for his Warthog, causing to come to a stop, Taylor mimicking his moves. To the left of the Warthogs was a staircase that descended downwards.

"You don't think that there are other survivors do you?" Ashley asked hesitantly.

"It as a possibility," Iasa said, as all five of them exited their Warthogs and began to cautiously walk down the stairs.

"Anyone down there?" Shepard called out. A man in a security uniform looked around a makeshift barricade that was standing a few feet away from the base of the stairs.

"Oh thank god," he said, stepping away from the barricade "You're not Geth, and if you're not Geth I don't care who you are."

"Are more survivors? Whose in charge here?" Shepard asked.

"You'll want to talk to Ethan Jeong, he's the main ExoGeni representative for this planet. He's been a little on edge recently, but then again who isn't," he said as the ground team walked down the stairs and into a makeshift outpost. There were around a dozen people inside half of them security guards, the other half worn refuges.

"Who are you, what are you doing here?" a man said, starting forward and reaching for a pistol, almost instinctively.

"Jeong you idiot, they're UNSC, RSN too by the looks of it," a woman said sternly, glaring at Jeong. "Just be glad that we aren't the only non-synthetic beings on the planet anymore."

"You do know that there are still survivors at Zhu's Hope right?" Tali asked, sounding slightly confused.

"You told me that they didn't make it," the woman said angrily, glaring at Jeong once again.

"How was I supposed to know that they were still alive Juliana, call them?" Jeong said, folding his arms defensively. "So what are you doing here?" Jeong asked, looking at Shepard and the rest of the ground team.

"We are here to neutralize the Geth," Iasa said simply.

"Well, that's the only good news that I've heard all week," Juliana said "They're using the ExoGeni building as a base, its not that much further up the Skyway, you'll be able to get there in no time with your Warthogs."

"Bear in mind that that building is ExoGeni property," Jeong said sternly "If you find any data you are to leave it where you found it for proper executives to collect."

"Well be heading out now," Shepard said "You might want to get to Zhu's Hope, it's much safer there."

"Out of the question," Jeong said, shaking his head "The Skyway is too exposed, we'll be sitting ducks out there. All twelve of us will stick out like a sore thumb and Pelicans won't work while the main Geth force is around, we're too close to their headquarters, they'll be shot down before they even get close and reveal our position in the process. We're stuck here as long as the Geth are still here."

"I hate to admit it, but he has a point Shepard," Ashley said, glancing at the Commander "They're stuck between a rock and a hard place here. They would have to go one at a time to make being detected unlikely, and they don't have enough guns just in case."

"If you're going up to the ExoGeni building," Juliana said, rubbing her arm uncomfortably "Could you please look for my daughter Lizbeth? I didn't see her on the way out." Shepard nodded and Juliana let out a sigh of relief.

"Alright," Shepard said, turning to face the refuges. "Hang tight, we'll take care of this." The ground team exited the outpost, reentered their Warthogs, and continued up the Skyway to the ExoGeni building.

"You know," Tali said, as Taylor steered the Warthog upwards "I've been thinking."

"About what?" Taylor asked, craning his neck to look at the Quarian.

"I can't help but think that this is all because of what my people did," Tali said, looking downwards sadly.

"Aw come on Tali," Taylor said comfortingly "You've been around the RSN for half of your life, you of all people should now that all A.I.s want to wipe out all organic life isn't true."

"I know that," Tali said "I'm not talking about us creating the Geth, I'm talking about what we did to them."

"Pardon?" Taylor asked, clearly confused.

"Smart A.I.s have no desire to kill organics, mainly because they have no reason to desire our deaths," Tali said. "They are treated with the same respect we give one another, and return it. When the Geth began to develop sentience the did nothing but ask questions, but we panicked. We tried to wipe out the Geth, shut down every last one, but it didn't work. They retaliated, wiping out the majority of the Quarians and forcing us to live on the Migrant Fleet. Before we were exposed to Smart A.I.s, I was bitter towards the Geth, hating them for what they had done. Now when I think about it, we could have avoided all of this if we had just extended the hand of kindness to the Geth instead of the fist of war. The Geth are not capable of feeling hate, they don't kill organics because they hate them or see them as useless, most likely they kill organics because they see us as a threat. It's all our fault."

"Oh come on," Taylor said, looking at Tali and speaking sternly. "It's not all your fault, ok? A couple of assholes fucked up big time and started as war, that doesn't mean that your entire race is to blame. Not all Germans were Nazis in World War II, not all Russians were Communists in the Cold War and not all middle easterners were terrorists in the War on Terror. The Quarians, as a whole, are not guilty of this, and even if they were, that was over 800 years ago, everyone who had a hand in it is long dead. Your race has a chance for a fresh start, you have a new planet, guardians who will protect you with life and limb, and a new respect for A.I.s. As for the Geth, we can't dwell on what could have been, right now, they're a threat to us, and we need to eliminate them before they eliminate us. Tali do me a favor, and don't kick yourself over this, I can't stand to see people do that to themselves when they don't deserve it."

"I...," Tali said, shocked at the speech that Taylor had just given her. "Thanks Taylor," she said, her smile hid behind her visor.

As the Warthogs continued to push forward, the Skyway came to an end, at the entrance to the ExoGeni building, five Geth troopers and a Geth Armature in front of it. Two of the Geth opened fire with rocket launchers, forcing the Warthogs to swerve to avoid the projectiles. As they did, the Warthog's turrets burst to life, gunning down the two Geth with rocket launchers quickly. The Armature fired it's pulse cannon, narrowly missing Taylor's Warthog while the other Geth fired at Shepard's Warthog with their sniper rifles.

Ashley brought her turret around, spraying one of the Geth with bullets, causing it to collapse. Iasa brought her carbine up to eye level and fired a burst at the Geth, blasting it's optic clean off. The remaining Geth fired it's sniper rifle, narrowly missing Ashley's head. Shepard drew a magnum, with one hand still on the wheel, and emptied the clip into the Geth, effectively destroying it.

While Shepard and the other's were taking care of the troopers, Taylor was desperately dodging the Armature's pulse cannon, while Tali desperately fired the turret at the Armature. "Taylor this isn't working!" Tali shouted "This thing will fry us before we do enough damage to take it down!" As if to emphasize her point, the Armature's pulse cannon missed the Warthog by inches.

"I've got an idea!" Taylor shouted, wheeling the Warthog around to face the Armature. As Taylor floored the acceleration, the Warthog sped forward, hitting the Armature head on. The Armature's forward legs gave out as the Warthog slammed into them, causing the forward part of the Geth to collapse directed on top of the front of the Warthog, crushing the windshield. Not letting the opportunity pass by, Tali leveled the turret with the Geth's optic, shooting it at point blank range. The Geth's shields collapsed as bullets slammed into it, then into it's optic, causing it to shatter.

"Keelah I'm glad that's over," Tali said as she released her grip on the turret.

"All right everybody," Shepard said, as everyone exited their Warthogs, drawing their weapons. "Let's do this," he said as they walked into the ExoGeni building.

They walked into what looked like it had once been an atrium. It had been throughly destroyed, tables were overturned chairs had been smashed, bodies of Humans covered the floor, lying along side a handful of Geth. "God damn it," Ashley swore silently as they walked through the atrium. They came to what looked like the top of a staircase, except nearly all of the stairs had been destroyed in the fighting.

"One way trip," Shepard said, looking down. "All right everyone, down we go," he said as he jumped off of the top of the staircase, landing on the ground several dozen feet below him. The others glanced at each other before following him, heading even deeper into the Geth's base of operations.

Author's Note: Look I know this isn't fighting for a purpose but I really need to get something off of my chest, to those of you who read fighting for a purpose I have a confession to make, I have not watched one full episode of Star Wars the Clone Wars, or the movie, I just don't have the heart. I just can't bring myself to do it, because every single character in it is just being raised like a lamb for the slaughter(order 66 and the fall of the Republic, I doubt any of them will survive, several already have confirmed deaths). I like the idea of the Ahsoka character, but I have a very bad feeling that she isn't going to make it out of season 3 alive, after all she isn't in revenge of the Sith for a reason, and she probably won't even live to be 17 like she's in my story. Man, if I watch the cartoon, I'll grow to love the character even more, only to be crushed when she died (I don't like the idea, but it's happening). This has really been bothering me so I could never bring myself to watch the show. In a way this whole issue was the reason I started writing Fighting for a Purpose in the first place, to create already where an epic character like her is doomed, 'sigh' now I feel depressed. I'm sorry if this bugged you but I really needed to get this off of my chest. Please PM on what you think.


	17. Biological Intruder

Chapter 17

Biological Intruder

Author's Note: I noticed that a couple of people reviewed saying that this was too much like the game Mass Effect, well the reason for that is that I need to go through to acquire the various plot points Ex: the Cipher, coordinates of the Mu relay. Rest assured I have an idea that will blow the Mass Effect plot out of proportion, I just need to be careful where I put it, I hope that you enjoy the story, regardless of your view on it.

In other news, I decided that I didn't want the rest of Feros being dragged out, so I decided that I would just finish it all in this and the next chapter chapter.

Shepard let out a small grunt as he hit the floor, the rest of the squad right following suit. "There's bound to be more Geth around here besides the ones that were guarding the front, keep your eyes peeled." The others nodded as the held out their weapons in front of them. As they began to walk forward, they walked through a doorway that led into what seemed to be a basement.

As they did, a shot rang out, as a bullet slammed into Shepard's shields. Wheeling around, pointing their weapons at the source of the shot. A scared looking woman holding a smoking magnum was standing there. "Oh God, I'm sorry," she said in a panicked voice. "I heard noises and panicked, I didn't know that you weren't..."

"It's all right," Shepard said as he lowered his rifle "Would your name happen to be Lizbeth would it?"

"How did you know that?" Lizbeth said said nervously, lowering her magnum.

"Your mother asked us to look for you," Taylor said "She's at an outpost in between here and Zhu's hope along with other refugees."

"She's still alive," Lizbeth sighed in relief, "Thank God. Listen I think I might know why the Geth are here."

"You do?" Ashley asked in a surprised voice "What?"

"Underneath Zhu's Hope there's an organism called the Thorian," Lizbeth said hurriedly "From what we've been able to learn from it, not only is it capable if intelligent thought, buy it's easily over 50,000 years old, it was alive during the time of the Protheans."

"What would Saren want with a 50,000 year old plant?" Tali asked in a confused voice.

"Whatever it is I doubt that it's good," Shepard said grimly "Lizbeth is there any way for you to get out?"

Lizbeth shook her head "The Geth put up some sort of energy field that's blocking all of the ways in and out. The power source is connected to their frigate, so if you can find a way to take it out, the fields should drop, and the jamming device that the Geth have up should go with it. It hooked up to building with claws through the shuttle bays you might be able to use that to your advantages. Here," she said, handing Shepard an ID card "The doors here are pretty sturdy so you'll need this to get through them."

"All right," Shepard said as he slipped the ID into his pocket "Stay here and stay out of sight, when the fields go down, make a run for it." Lizbeth nodded as the ground team continued deeper into the ExoGeni facility.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," Tali said as the began to climb a staircase after moving forward for a couple of minutes "The last time the Sangheili encountered an eon old organism, it didn't exactly end well." Ashley and Taylor looked at Tali with startled look on their faces.

"The Quarians were informed of the Flood and the Halos after they were absorbed," Iasa explained "Just like every other person among the RSN they are not to reveal it to anyone outside of the RSN and the UNSC military unless there is an crisis. If the Council finds out it will become public knowledge and the chances of someone searching for the Flood for experimentation, which could lead to an outbreak."

"It's a little frightening ," Tali said, almost nervously "I mean to think that something with that much capabilities could still be on the loose."

"Can't blame you there," Taylor said "From what I've read of recordings of the Human Covenant War, the Flood are not to be taken...can anyone else hear that?"

There was a angry voice shouting from the top of the stairs. "Stupid machine! Access the damn files!"

"You lack proper access," a mechanical voice replied "This data is classified only to be shown to proper ExoGeni officials." As Shepard and the others reached the top of the stairs, they saw a Krogan smashing furiously on a console.

"You damn A.I.!" he roared "If you don't give me what I want, I'm going to rip out your motherboard and piss on it!"

"That is highly unlikely," the mechanical voice replied "My motherboard is located in a sealed room that can only be accessed by proper technicians. You would require military grade explosives to get through the door by force."

"Take him down," Shepard whispered to Tali "Quietly," Tali nodded as she drew her knife from her ankle holster and began to creep forward quietly. This was actually rather unnecessary, as the Krogan was making so much noise he probably wouldn't hear a gun going off. As Tali approached the Krogan, she jumped forward, reaching around and slicing the Krogan's neck wide open. The Krogan fell to the ground, gagging on it's own blood, as Tali brought her knife down again, silencing the Krogan. "Nice work Tali," Shepard said, as the Quarian nodded, and cleaned the blood off of her blade and sheathed it.

"So what do you reckon he was getting all pissed off about?" Ashley asked as they approached the console that the Krogan had been attacking.

"Welcome to ExoGeni, Feros branch, please present identification," the same mechanical voice said.

"Sounds like a Dumb A.I.," Taylor said "Probably was more concerned that he didn't have an ID instead of the fact that he was an angry Krogan that wanted to snap him in half."

While Taylor spoke, Shepard removed Lizbeth's ID and waved it over the machine, which beeped in response. "Welcome Lizbeth Baynham" the A.I. said "How can I be of service?"

"If these are supposed to be smarter than VIs, I think I'll lose my grip if I ever see one," Tali said to Taylor, who couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"The last person that tried to access this terminal," Shepard said "What did they attempt to access?"

"Information on Species 37, also known as the Thorian," the A.I. replied "He lacked proper identification and was denied access."

"Tell me everything that you know about the Thorian," Shepard said, the faintest hint of worry in his voice. 'Saren is here for the Thorian,' he thought.

"Certainly," the A.I. replied "Species 37 was discovered several months ago by an ExoGeni research team. As examinations began, it was learned that Species 37 produces spores that infest themselves in the nervous systems of other organisms. Species 37 is capable of using telepathy to control it's hosts, referred to as 'thralls,' by issuing them orders. If the host refused to obey, the spores cause them intense pain until they obey."

"Why would the Thorian infect people with spores?" Iasa asked in a tone that was somewhere between shock and disgust.

"Most theories point to self preservation and growth of mind," the A.I. replied. "Species 37 uses the thralls to protect itself, although it does not intentionally harm them, the same way a construction worker does not intentionally break his tools. This information was apparent from results taken from the control group."

"Control group?" Taylor asked, horror in his voice "What control group."

"Zhu's hope was intentionally positioned over Species 37 to experiment the affects of the spores," the A.I. replied "Since the first exposure, nearly 95% of Zhu's hope has been infested with spores. Is there anything else that you would like to access?"

"No," Shepard said grimly "Log out."

"Very well," the A.I. said, as it deactivated.

"Well that explains a lot," Ashley said bitterly "A little too much if you ask me."

"The entire colony was infected by the spores?" Tali asked in horror "That's why they were acting so strange, the Thorian was using them to protect itself."

"This isn't good," Shepard said as he put his hand to his COM unit. "Joker, can you read me Joker?" he asked, but all he heard was static. "Communications are out," he said bitterly as he took his hand away. "If we want to get anywhere, we need to take out that frigate."

Issac let out a sigh as he checked the ammo level on his assault rifle. It had been an hour or two since Commander Shepard and his forces had left for the ExoGeni HQ, and things were looking gray. Fai Dan had reassigned him to the entrance to the Skyway, due to the fact it was a likely place for the Geth to attack. "Issac," Fai Dan said, as he approached Issac, a magnum in hand.

"Yeah?" Issac asked looking at him in the eyes, and finding that they were eerily glassy.

"You're a good kid," he said oddly "That's why you need to get out of here."

"Pardon me?" Issac asked, raising his eyebrow. He wasn't really in the mood for more mindless bantering.

"You don't get it," Fai Dan said desperately, drawing a magnum from a holster, and pointing it as Issac, who hurriedly raised his rifle. "It knows that it doesn't control you, and it sees you as a threat. It want's me to kill you, but I can't. The others will be down here soon. Issac please...RUN!" he shouted, his voice bordering on agony as he fired a shot. His arm had jerked however and missed Issac by a long shot. Dashing forward, Issac slammed the butt of his rifle into Fai Dan's chest, who let out a grunt of pain as he fell to the ground.

Issac ran for his life, running out of Zhu's Hope and up the Skyway. He didm't care where he went, as long as he was far away from here. He didn't know how long he had been running, ten minutes twenty, half an hour, when he stopped, leaning against the wall, taking in huge deep breaths. "I...I need to rest," he panted weakly. Rubbing his brown hair out of his eyes looking around, he saw that he was nearby what looked like the remains of an old outpost. Sitting down with his back to the way, he grabbed his canteen from his belt and took deep, long gulps. 'Shepard,' he thought 'If you're going to do something, do it now.'

Glancing to his left, he saw the wreckage of a transportation Warthog, with a black handle sticking out from under the wreckage. "What the..." he said as he approached the Warthog grabbing the handle and pulling. He met little resistance and the pulled the handle out with ease, revealing it to be a end of a grenade launcher. "Hello," Issac said as he looked at the grenade launcher and saw a couple of spare grenades lying around. "Maybe this day isn't going to be so bad after all," he said as he began to pick them up.

"This looks like the shuttle bay," Taylor said as he and the rest of the ground team moved descended a set of stairs into a wide open area.

"Alright," Shepard said "One of the claws that the Geth frigate is using to cling to the building is in here. If we destroy it that it might to enough to cause to frigate to fall. All right move up." No sooner had they began to move, then Geth came into sight, their weapons aimed at them.

The ground team dove out of the path of the oncoming bullets, taking cover behind various walls and pillars throughout the room. Taylor leaned out of cover and fired his DMR at one of the Geth, taking it's shields down, then finishing it off with a Biotic Warp.

Iasa produced a plasma grenade, and angled it so that it landed behind a pillar where a Geth was hiding. The Geth scrambled away from the grenade, only to be gunned down by Ashley's assault rifle. Meanwhile, Tali had swapped her shotgun for her pistol and was shooting at a Geth Juggernaut that was charging at Shepard, taking it's shields down.

As the Juggernaut approached Shepard, the fired two bursts into each of it's legs, causing it to collapse. Catching it before it hit the ground, Shepard stuck a plasma grenade to the Geth, and then kicked it furiously, sending it flying towards the remaining Geth as the grenade exploded, destroying all of the Geth.

"Improvised tactics," Iasa said, looking at the smoldering Geth with an impressed look on her face "The best kind." As they moved forward, they saw one of the frigate's claws jutting through a shuttle bay door.

"Any idea on how we take that thing out?" Taylor asked "I seriously doubt we have anything heavy enough."

"Hold on," Ashley said, as she approached a terminal, picking up a note on it. "Warning," she read out load "There is a malfunction with with the bay doors, if it is set from anywhere between 31 PSI and 34 PSI, it closes like a bear trap. Can somebody fix it before we get an in an accident down here?" Ashley looked at the terminal thoughtfully. "Like a bear trap huh?" she said as she spun a knob on the terminal deliberately setting it so that the malfunction would occur. "Let's see," she said as she pushed a button.

With speed far above safety limits, the shuttle bay doors slammed shut, cutting through the claw like it was tin foil. The was a loud creaking noise as gravity began to take hold of the Geth frigate, the other claws beginning to snap under the strain. Then, with a deafening grinding noise the claws snapped and the frigate fell away, plummeting to the surface of the planet.

"Well that takes care of that," Taylor said, as a bright blue barrier that had been blocking a door not too far away from them vanished.

"Shepard can you hear me?" came Joker's voice through Shepard's COM unit.

"I read you Joker, what's the problem?" Shepard asked.

"The colonist have gone crazy," Joker said "They've been banging on the hull for the last ten minutes. Nothing serious has happened yet, but that could change real soon. You might want to fix this quick Shepard, Wrex is standing next to the airlock with his shotgun and he looks real hopeful that colonists will get in her."

"All right, sit tight Joker," Shepard said "Don't do anything rash, and if the colonists get in, get away from Wrex, you might get caught in his fire."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Joker replied "Joker out."

"Let's get a move on," Shepard said gesturing for the door "The Thorian is actively controlling the colonists now." The others nodded before dashing through, taking a shortcut back to the entrance, to wear the Warthogs where.

"Your alright, thank goodness," Lizbeth said, as she stood next to one of the Warthogs.

"I know that you didn't tell me the whole truth Lizbeth," Shepard said sternly as he approached her "Why didn't you tell me about the Thorian?"

"I...you...but..." Lizbeth stuttered "I was scared alright? I was already on probation for speaking out against the experiments and if I didn't keep my mouth shut I was going to end up as one of them." Shepard stared deep into Lizbeth's eyes, scanning for any signs of deceit, he found none.

"Alright," he said "Get in the Warthog, we'll take you to your mother."

"Really?" Lizbeth asked in a surprised voice. "Thank you," she said gratefully "I...thank you."

Issac had just finished loading his new weapon and had just holstered it over his back with a makeshift strap that was actually his spare belt when he heard something akin to shouting. Turning to face the origin of the sound, he saw that it had come from the abandoned outpost. Issac frowned, could someone still be in there? Gripping his rifle tightly, Issac raised it up to eye level as slowly approached the outpost.

"You can't just do this Jeong!" a voice shouted angrily.

"You don't get it do you?" another voice shouted "Communications are back up and ExoGeni wants this place purged!"

'Purged?' Issac thought 'What the fuck?' As he began to step down the stairs into the outpost, he saw a man and a woman arguing, the man holding a pistol.

"This is a Human colony Jeong, you can't just wipe it out!" the woman shouted.

"Get her out of here!" the man shouted, and two of the security guards present moved in to grab her.

"How about you don't?" Issac said, making his presence known.

"What the?"Jeong said, pointing his pistol at Issac, who in turn raised his assault rifle "Who the Hell are you?"

"Issac Morgan," Issac said coldly "I'm from Zhu's hope, the same colony your talking about wiping out apparently. Mind telling me what the fuck that's all about?"

"It's none of your business!" Jeong roared, as a security guard attempted to grab Issac from behind. Issac swung his rifle sideways, hitting the guard in the neck. He followed this up by grabbing him by the hair, and slamming him into the wall, knocking him out.

"I think it is my business," Issac said angrily "You can't just going around wiping out colonies for the fun of it."

"He's right Jeong," said a voice from behind Issac. Issac craned his neck and saw Shepard standing there, along with two ODSTs, weapons raised and the Warthogs parked outside.

"Look it isn't my call," Jeong said defensively as he raised his pistol "This came from the top of Exogeni, and nobody's going to miss a couple of colo..." but he was cut off as Issac fired his assault rifle, emptying the entire clip into Jeong's chest.

"No better than the Geth," he muttered, looking a Jeong's corpse. "All right," he said, looking at Shepard "Could someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?"

Author's Note: All right Feros has almost come to an end and then Cerberus and then Noveria. By the way, starting September 14th I'm taking an indefinite vacation, you get three reasons as to why.


	18. Thorian Crisis

Chapter 18

Thorian Crisis

Author's Note: Just wrapping up the events on Feros here, and by the way, for those of you that didn't understand it, I'm taking an indefinite vacation on September 14th because that's the day Halo: Reach comes out.

"I hope you can understand if I find this a little overwhelming," Issac said, as he rubbed his head. He was standing in the outpost with Shepard and the two ODSTs that had come with him, the Quarian and the Sangheili having remained outside as sentries. "There's a 50,000 year old plant living under Zhu's Hope that can control people with spores. And to top it off ExoGeni put us on top of it just to see what would happen, like we're nothing more than bacteria in a petri dish." He sighed "Though I guess it does make sense. It's just hard to believe that I wasn't infected by some miracle.

"That reminds me," Shepard said frowning "Why are you here instead of Zhu's Hope."

"Simple really," Issac said in a slightly angry voice "Fai Dan tried to kill me." Shepard's eyes widened slightly, but he said nothing, silently asking Issac to continue. "He took a shot at me, but jerked when he pulled the trigger, he missed by a mile. I think that he's still in there somewhere."

"He is," Lizbeth said, causing Issac to look at her "The spores left his mind intact, they just give him directions on what to do, and cause him pain if he refuses."

"So that's why he missed," Issac said, more or less to himself "He was fighting the Thorian's control."

"Is there anyway to free the colonists from the Thorian's control?" Shepard asked looking at Lizbeth.

"I'm not certain," she said hesitantly "But if you kill the Thorian it should break the control that it has over the colonists," Lizbeth said.

"Easier said then done," Issac said "If it saw me as a threat all of a sudden, then I doubt the colonists are just going to let us walk in? And yes I said us," he said, a little sharply as he looked at the ODSTs "I coming with you, this thing is tearing up my home and my friends and I'm not just going to stand around and watch."

"I was going to suggest that myself," Shepard said, a little surprised at the outburst.

"Yeah," Ashley said "I mean it's pretty obvious that your ex-military."

Issac stiffened "What?" he said plainly.

"It's from the way you hold yourself," Taylor explained "No untrained civilian holds a rifle the way that you do. Not to mention you were head on when you shot Jeong."

"I...," Issac said defensively "Fine, I used to be a Marine, I was on the ground on Elysium when the Blitz happened. I saw around a dozen civilians squished into cages, and god knows what would have happened if we hadn't killed them."

"Why did you retire?" Shepard asked.

"PTSD*," Issac said. "That battle screwed with my head, Batarians are ruthless bastards, almost as bad as Jiralhanae. After I saw a therapist, I decided to retire to a small colony, and what do you know, two weeks after I get there, the Geth show up," he said bitterly. He shook his head again "We can talk about this later, what are we going to about Zhu's Hope? We can't just kill the colonists."

"You won't have to," Juliana said, standing up from the table, where she had been tinkering with a series of metallic objects for the past couple of minutes. "We normally use these grenades as pesticide, but I modified them," She said, as she handed Shepard a small leather bag filled with gas grenades. "They should knock the infected colonists out without harming them. After they no longer pose a threat you should be able to take care of the Thorian."

"Where is the Thorian exactly?" Taylor asked, looking at Lizbeth.

"From what I read in the reports, it's located in a lower protein of the skyscraper. The colonists moved part of an old freighter in front of the tunnel that leads to it."

"That old thing?" Issac asked "Fai Dan told us to put that there so that the Geth couldn't come up from below. Looks that was a load of shit."

"Looks that way," Shepard said as he began to hand out the gas grenades to Issac, Taylor and Ashley. "All right let's go, the longer we wait, the more time the colonists have to dig in." The others nodded as the began to head for the Warthog.

"Issac wait," Lizbeth said, causing the ex-Marine to turn around and look at her. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about what happened."

Despite of the hardships that he had gone through Issac smiled. "Were you one of the people that was responsible for what happened? Did you give the order for us to be right on top of a brainwashing plant?"

"No," Lizbeth said "But I..."

"Then there's no reason for me to be mad," Issac said kindly "I'll see you later."

Five minutes later, the Warthogs were heading down the Skyway, towards Zhu's Hope. Issac was riding shotgun in the same Warthog that Shepard was driving and Ashley gunning. Taylor was driving the other Warthog, with Tali on the gun and Iasa in the passenger's seat.

"All right," Shepard said, as the Warthogs came to a stop outside of the Zhu's Hope access door and everyone exited the Warthogs. "We're here to save the colonists. Use the gas grenades to stun them, or immobilize them in another way. Only shoot them if you absolutely have to."

"Understood," Iasa said as she took one of the gas grenades from her hip, the others taking their own gas grenades from the various places that they had been keeping them, Issac actually loading one into his grenade launcher. As they approached the door, it opened automatically and three colonists fired from behind a makeshift barricade.

The bullets slammed into the shields of the ground team, holding as Issac fired his grenade launcher. It arched over the barricade and exploded behind it, knocking the colonists out. "All right move up," Shepard said, as he began to move up the stairs that led to the upper levels of the colony, the others following him.

As they reached the top of the staircase, two colonists opened fire on them. Ashley threw one of her gas grenades at the colonists, however one was able to jump out of the way and avoid the blast, while the other was knocked out. Taylor threw a biotic Pull at the remaining colonist, causing him to float helplessly in the air while Iasa walked forward and knocked him out with a blow to the head.

Continuing through the colony, the ground team came under fire from five spread out colonists. Tali, Shepard and Iasa all threw their grenades at their various positions, which knocked them out as they detonated. "All right," Shepard said, as they came to the wreckage of the freighter "Issac, can you get this thing out of the way?"

"Yeah," Issac said as he approached a terminal in front of a crane, and began to type on it. The crane began to descend, grabbing the freighter and lifting it out of the way, revealing a tunnel behind it. "All right," Issac said, as he stepped away from the terminal, "We're golden."

"You know what it means to be a leader don't you Commander?" A voice asked. Everyone wheeled around, weapons raised, to see Fai Dan holding a magnum loosely at his side. "Leaders are supposed to watch out for the people under them, make sure nothing bad happens to them. It want's me to kill you, to throw away my position as leader. But I won't," he said as he began to raise his magnum, pointing it at his head. "I WON'T!"

"Fai don't!" Issac shouted, but it was too late, Fai Dan had already pulled the trigger, the bullet, piercing his brain. "GOD DAMN IT!" Issac swore loudly. "I swear to christ that fucking plant had better have lived a full life, because it is not living past today!"

As the ground team descended into the tunnels, they kept their weapons raised, looking for any signs of trouble. "Know that I think about it," Ashley said, as they continued to move forward "How will we know what the Thorian looks...looks...oh my God."

They had just stepped into a chamber, with a massive growth, easily kilometers long, holding itself in the center up, with massive tentacles that spread across the entire chamber. "That's a plant?" Taylor asked in a clearly disbelieving voice.

"Apparently," Issac said, in an equal amount of shock. Tentacles, that seemed to be coming out of what looked like a face, began to to quiver, and a green Asari fell out of it's "Mouth." "Who are you to disturb the rest of the Old Growth?" the Asari said angrily, pointing at Shepard with an accusatory finger.

"You've infected UNSC colonists," Shepard said coldly "Free them now, or we'll be forced to eliminate you."

"The Old Growth will not stoop to demands from lesser beings," the Asari said, as a second green Asari fell from the Thorian's mouth.

"They are useful Thralls," the second one said, as a third fell from the Thorian "You will kneel or die."

"Oh shut it!" Ashley shouted, as she raised her assault rifle, opening fire at the middle Asari. The Asari extended her arm, creating a Biotic Barrier in front of herself, which blocked the bullets. All three of the Asari jumped backwards, onto the Thorian, and began to climb until they were out of sight.

"Take out the Thorian!" Shepard shouted "Aim for those tentacles!" Shepard, Ashley and Iasa sprinted to the right, heading up a ramp, while Tali, Taylor and Issac dashed up the ramp to the left, both groups heading upwards to where the tentacles were attached to the wall.

As the base of one of the tentacles came into view, Issac aimed his grenade launcher, and fired it. The grenade slammed into the tentacle and exploded, tearing away large amounts of flesh and causing it to go limp. There was an ungodly roar from the Thorian as it roared out in what sounded like pain.

Almost automatically, one of the Asari leapt into the room, throwing a Biotic Warp at Taylor, who barley created a Barrier in time to block it. Turning on her heel, the Asari threw a kick at Tali, who raised her shotgun to block it. As the Asari's foot slammed into the shotgun, Tali staggered back, knocked off balance.

It still empty, Issac raised his grenade launcher, and swung it like a club, aiming for the Asari's head, but she ducked the blow, landed a kick on Issac's chest as she did so. Taylor took advantage of the Asari's compromising position and threw a Warp at her, tearing a massive hole in her stomach. As she fell to the ground in pain, Issac dropped his grenade launcher and unholstered his assault rifle as Tali brought her shotgun up, and Taylor did the same with his DMR. They all opened fire, the combined assault killing the Asari.

"What the Hell are these things?" Issac said as he picked up his grenade launcher and reloaded it.

"No freaking clue," Taylor said "But right now isn't the time to be thinking about it, we have to kill this thing." Issac and Tali nodded as they continued to move upwards.

On the other side of the chamber, Iasa, Shepard and Ashley sprinted towards another one of the Thorian's tentacles. As they drew closer, Iasa activated both of her energy swords and jumped over the tentacle, slashing it as she did so. It went limp as the Thorian let out it's haunting roar again. Another one of the green Asari swung into the room, kicking at Iasa with both feet. Iasa easily dodged the move by throwing herself across the room, landing gracefully. As she did so, she swapped out her energy swords for her carbine, firing bursts at the Asari.

The Asari extended it's hands, projecting a Barrier that blocked the plasma bolts. Despite this, she was forced to jump out of the way when Ashley fired at her from behind, aiming a Biotic Throw at the ODST as she did so, which Ashley barley avoided. This had sealed her fate however, as she slid across the ground, Shepard fired three bursts from his battle rifle, all of them hitting her squarely in the chest. "Keep moving!" Shepard shouted, as Ashley threw a plasma grenade at another nearby tentacle, which earned another roar from the Thorian. "I don't think that it can take much more.

As Taylor, Tali and Issac moved even higher, the found the last Asari standing in front of another tentacle. "The Old Growth will not fade, she said, in a voice that sounded faintly hysterical. Instead of using biotics, she simply lunged forward, lashing out violently at Issac, who swung his grenade launcher, catching her firmly in the chest. Letting out a cry of pain, the Asari staggered back, only to be killed when Tali leveled off a shotgun blast at her chest.

"Let's see if this does the trick," Taylor said, as he threw a Warp at the tentacle, tearing a hole in it. The Thorian let out another roar, the loudest it had done so far, as it's weight became too much for it's remaining tentacles to handle as they gave out, the Thorian falling into the deep pit it was hanging over.

"Keelah I'm glad that's over," Tali said, as she stat down on a lump of stone.

"Yeah," Taylor said as he turned to face Issac "You handled yourself pretty well, any chance you'd like to tag along with us?"

"You said something about a rouge Spectre, is he the one who commanded those Geth?" Issac asked. Taylor nodded. "Then count me in, just give me the 411."

"Is it dead?" Ashley asked, as she Iasa and Shepard looked down into the pit that the Thorian had just fallen into.

"I believe so," Iasa said, as she kicked a pebble into the pit, and wasn't rewarded with a sound "It could not survive a fall like that." Shepard was about to say something, when all three of them heard a tearing noise. Turning around, they saw a large organic sack attached to the wall, with something punching itself out from the inside. The sack tore open and a purple Asari that resembled the green ones tumbled out, breathing as if she had spent the last couple of minutes underwater.

"Who are you," Shepard said cautiously, maintaining a grip on his rifle, but not raising it.

"My name is Shiala," the Asari said, gasping for breath as she did so "And I am in your debt."

"What are you doing here?" Iasa asked curiously. "I am...was loyal to Matriarch Benezia, and by extension Saren," she said "Asari are the only known telepathic creatures in the Galaxy, he wanted me to communicate with it."

"Why?" Ashley asked, clearly confused.

"You touched a Protean Beacon correct?" Shiala asked, pointing at Shepard, who nodded. "Did you understand it?"

"No," Shepard said reluctantly "It was all blurs and shapes.

"That is because the message was designed for a Prothean mind," Shiala said "Another race can not understand it, in fact it is a miracle your mind wasn't destroyed. The Thorian absorbs intelligent life, the way it nearly did to me, and gains their memories. Saren used me as a bridge to obtain the Cipher."

"The what know?" Ashley asked.

"It can not be explained," Shiala answered "It would be like describing smell to someone that lacks a nose. It is the spiritual context of the Prothean race and it should allow you to understand the message from the beacon. I could give it to you the way I gave it to Saren."

"Hold on," Shepard said "I have a couple of questions first, first off how did you wind up down here alone. Why did you follow Saren, and for that matter why is Benezia?"

"I was trapped down here as part of a trade," Shiala said sadly "The Thorian gave Saren the Cipher in exchange for me. Afterwards though, Saren ordered the Thorian destroyed, but it was able to use the colonists that is infected to drive the Geth off. As for Benezia, that is a little more complicated.

"Saren's flagship, a ship calls Sovereign, emits an indictable signal, that bends organics to it's will. It it subtle, taking weeks for some people, and by the time you realize what has happened, it is too late." Shiala smiled sadly. "Matriarch Benezia followed Saren because she believed that she could out him back on the right path, believed that she would be able to resist Sovereign's effects, but it proved to be too much. Now she is much of a slave to him, an I was before the Thorian shattered the connection."

"Saren's ship can control minds?" Iasa asked in a shocked voice.

"Why is it every time we learn something new about the guy, we learn how royally screwed we all are?" Ashley asked angrily.

"I know that it is intimidating, but do not lose hope," Shiala said "Shepard, if you want to understand the vision, you must have the Cipher, are you ready to receive it?" Shepard nodded determinedly. "Very well," Shiala said as she walked forward "Try to relax, loosen your earthly bounds, every living thing is connected, it is one, yet separate. Embrace Entirety!"

Shepard's eyes shot wide open as the vision from Eden Prime came rushing back. Seemingly random shapes and images of chaos and destruction flashed before his eyes, yet it ended as soon as it had started. "It still didn't make any sense," Shepard said, panting as she looked at Shiala. "Did it not work?"

"No," Shiala said, shaking her head "It worked perfectly, your brain simply needs time to process it."

"So what are you going to do now?" Ashley asked.

"These colonist have suffered much because of the Thorian," Shiala said "If you would allow it, I would like to stay and help them rebuild.

"I have no problem with that," Shepard said "I'm sure that they'll like the help."

"Shepard there is one more thing," Shiala said. "As much as it pains me, I believe Benezia is beyond saving, if you meet her you must kill her or she will kill you."

"That will be rather painful for one of our allies," Iasa said "Liara T'Soni, Benezia daughter, is with us."

Shiala gasped. "Goddess," she said "I am sorry but I do not see another way, please pass on my condolences to the poor child."

*PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

Author's Note: I feel inclined to write this here, I would like to thank a specific website that helped give me a lot of ideas for my stories in general, and helped structure them. The name of the website is Tvtropes which is like a dictionary for literary items (Tropes). It's rather hard to explain, let me give you an example, one trope is called "Mook" which basically describes various forms of those little minions the bad guys have that fight the hero but never really stood a chance. Another trope is called "The Spartan Way" which basically describes people being exposed to ridicules amounts of training in order to become effective solders Chief is an example of this. I would recommend that you check it out, it's really interesting.


	19. Author's Note

Author's Note:

I'm sorry, but flipping through the chapters of this story, I'm starting to see that none of it came out the way I wanted it to. I'm recalling certain people saying that Shepard certain be a Spectre since the UNSC is part of the Council. They're right. I also feel bad about skipping First Contact meetings and some of my OCs and some of the Original characters come off as flat and one dimensional, and I really am following the original plot too closely, although mind you I had a huge plot twist around the corner. I am scrapping this story, but don't worry, I plan on writing a rewrite, much like I did with fighting for a purpose. I hope that you look out for the rewrite, and I'm sorry if you're disappointed. Expect the rewrite to show up when I'm done with Fighting for a Purpose, I'll try to multitask it with the sequel.

P.S. I recall reading somewhere one this website, a post that one author put. He said that he hated people that held polls on how the story should be written saying "Make up your own mind, write the story the way YOU want to write it" He later said the whole reason he wrote the story was to create his image, and while he listened to constructive criticism, he ignored the flames. So the Shepard in the rewrite will be female, I've kinda wanted to do that for awhile now (Live with it). When doing the rewrite I will look over the reviews for this story, and take into account those who gave constructive criticism, and hopefully the rewrite will be much better.


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